H-beam Price Keeps Flat in Tokyo

H-beam price keeps flat at 75,000-76,000 yen per tonne in Tokyo at dealers’ sites without freight for products with 100 x 200 millimeters widths. The dealers get little order with large volume while the small-lot orders are as much as January. The arrivals exceed shipment at dealers’ sites with higher shipment from makers. The dealers have inventory enough to meet the shipment with increasing stock volume though they had some stock out sizes before. The users hurried to secure H-beam from the end of 2005 to the beginning of 2006 under the tight supply in the distributors’ market. Now the users are reluctant to build inventory when distributors have enough stock to meet the orders. Tokyo Steel Manufacturing is said to ship in a month for some orders in February though the firm took around 2 months from order to delivery in December.The H-beam inventory held by Tokiwa-kai members, which are distributors dealing Nippon Steel’ products, is expected to increase at the end of January from December, which Nippon Steel announces today. The increase doesn’t cool the market mood when the inventory is expected to increase by less than 10% though the market price could decrease with the wider increase of the inventory.