A Mood of Bottom-out Acid-pickled Steel Sheet Price Spreads in the Kansai Area

A mood of bottom-out acid-pickled steel sheet market price has spread in the Kansai area, Western Japan, because the dealers have avoid dealing with the lower price under active movements of the steel sheet for autoparts, etc. Some dealer wants to raise the selling price when identifying decrease of the stock. So there is some possibility that the market will rally in the future.Acid-pickled steel sheet supply and demand in the area has been improving since February. As for the supply, makers are reinforcing the production decreases; in addition, they make the shipments for car the first priority while they control them for distributors. Further, they have cut the import from South Korea and Taiwan. As a result, there is a tendency for the arrivals of the coil centers in the area to decrease from February though they are rather many in January. The stock ratio in the centers decreases to 1.6 months or so. Adjustments of the cut length stock of distributors are being promoted. Regarding the demand, that for autoparts and steel-made furniture is firm. Users have aggressively procured acid-pickled steel sheets from distributors. As a result, the shipments by coil centers and distributors have increased since around the second half of last month.