Sumikin Stainless Steel Tube to Raise Welded Tube Price Again

Sumikin Stainless Steel Tube Corporation will raise the selling price for welded stainless steel tube again by 20,000 yen per tonne for distributors and specific users for November contracts and December-January shipment. The firm had accepted additional price hike for tube materials due to surge of nickel price and aims to pass the cost price increase on the selling price. The firm raised the selling price 6 times in 2006.Sumikin Stainless Steel Tube increased the selling price by 30,000 yen per tonne for February 2006 contracts, by 50,000 yen for June contracts, by 50,000 yen for August contracts and by 40,000 yen for October contracts to pass surge of material prices. However, nickel price continued rising to average US$ 14.26 per pound in September-October at London Metal Exchange and keeps high at average US$ 14.50 for November 1-10.Demand for welded stainless steel tube is strong for chemical, shipbuilding, paper making and information technology industries. The market inventory is much decreasing and the makers cannot meet requirement from users enough in some cases. In addition the makers are recently facing difficulty to purchase stainless steel coil when stainless steel sheet supply is tightening. Welded pipe supply is likely to become still tighter.