Tokyo Steel Leaves Selling Prices Unchanged for August

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Tuesday the firm left the selling price for all steel items for distributors for August order, which the firm accepts until July 20. The firm didn’t change the price list for the first time in 4 months. The firm decided to watch the market when steel market price decreases in China and Asia and the market is slow in USA and Europe due to summer holiday. The firm said the hot rolled coil export offer price decreased to around FOB US$ 580 per tonne for September shipment from US$ 600 for August. The firm reported Chinese steel products prices dropped by US$ 30-40 per tonne recently while the ferrous scrap price increased by U$ 15-20. The firm sees Chinese market slowed down after the rapid price increase while steel market in USA and Europe entered into summer holiday. The firm expects domestic private sector accelerates the capital expenditure under expectation for higher interest rate though the expenditure is already high level. The firm estimates the steel demand keeps firm when Bank of Japan decided to encourage the uncollateralized overnight call rate to keep around 0.25% from 5 years and 4 months lasted zero interest policy under firm economy growth. The firm produced 157,000 tonnes of H-beam and 100,000 tonnes of hot coil in June in line with May. The firm estimates the output decreases to less than 140,000 tonnes for H-beam and 70,000-80,000 tonnes for hot coil in July due to planned maintenance. The firm said the higher cost for crude oil and ferrous scrap supports the steel selling prices despite of the adjustment in offshore steel market. The firm expects the steel demand keeps firm and the market will recover from mid-August.