Tokyo’s Steel Sheet Market to be Weak

The steel sheet market in the Tokyo area, Eastern Japan, is still weak through this month because procurement of steel sheet products is limited. This current market trend is likely to continue in terms of the supply-demand and market sentiments although there is blast furnace steel makers’ policy on price maintenance of the products and distributors’ selling stances to avoid profit deterioration. The blast furnace steel makers have the policy on the price maintenance that supports the whole market in the area. On the other hand, there is some influence of the import products, which have price differences with the prices which are maintained by blast furnace steel makers and whose prices are low, on the markets’ weak trends. There seems promotion of expansion of the domestic low prices compared with the import product prices depending on competitive variety and standard to the import products. As for the prices of partner trade in town, hot-rolled steel intermediate plate is around 65,000 yen per tonne. Cold-rolled steel sheet is around 80,000 yen per tonne. Zinc coated steel sheet is 90,000 yen or so per tonne.