Tokyo Steel Leaves Prices Unchanged for All Items

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm left the selling prices unchanged for all items for November order, which the firm accepts until Wednesday. The firm kept the all prices for 4 months in a row. The firm tries to watch the market when the flat steel sales are slow though the demand is firm for long products except for concrete reinforcing steel bar. The firm got hot rolled coil export order at FOB US$ 520-530 per tonne. The firm ships hot coil at FOB US$ 630 per tonne for USA under firm demand despite of slowdown in housing market. The firm reported the price in China increased by US$ 20-30 to FOB US$ 470-480 for hot coil and the price for rerollers is US$ 510. The firm said the domestic demand is firm for small and mid sized companies’ capital expenditure especially around Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyushu area. However, the firm decided not to increase the price when some rebar and flat steel price is still lower. The firm plans to produce 145,000 tonnes of H-beam in October compared with 149,000 tonnes in September while the firm produces monthly 80,000-100,000 tonnes of hot coil including 20,000-30,000 tonnes of export. The firm expects ferrous scrap price keeps the high level when the scrap arrival is not enough to the requirement and competitor makers pay more than the firm. The firm said scrap price could decrease sooner when some offshore makers reduced the scrap purchase price.* See the attached Excel file “Nov2006_TokyoSteelSalesPrice.xls”.