Square Steel Tube Price Keeps Flat in Tokyo

The market price of large diameter square steel pipe is flat at 100,000-102,000 yen per tonne for STKR with 12 millimeters thick and 300 by 300 millimeters width and at 108,000-110,000 yen per tonne for BCR including processing fee. Dealers have constant orders mainly for large sized products with over 400 by 400 millimeters width. The dealers aim to raise the reselling prices to over 100,000 yen at least. However, the hike actions are not strong enough to push up the market center price yet and the market price would keep flat.The dealers seem to have trading at the cheaper prices below 100,000 yen per tonne at about 20% of all trades. There remained cheaper prices in the market despite of each dealers’ efforts to raise the market bottom. Recently the processing lead time became longer to 7-10 days at the dealers and they turned to the strong stances when their processing schedules become tighter.The dealers also expect the price recovery for steel frame after the hike for large diameter square steel pipe, the material for steel frame. They are likely to pass 2,000-3,000 yen of freight cost up on the reselling prices in September and to seek the market price increase.