Japan H-Beam Stock Increases by 1.1% in January

Japanese H-beam inventory held by the members of Tokiwa-kai, which is a group of distributors dealing Nippon Steel’s H-beam, increased by 1.1% to 175,400 tonnes at the end of January from December, announced by Nippon Steel on Tuesday. The inventory increased for two months in a row. The inventory to shipment was 2.1 months, which exceeded 2.0 months for the first time in five months. Nippon Steel will continues shift down of the large shaped steel mill in Kimitsu iron works and tries to tighten the supply and demand balance.

Nippon Steel commented the inventory maintains excess against the demand while showed a concern that the inventory might increase more since the inventory increased largely for April-June of past couple years.

The distributors’ shipment decreased by 9.0% to 83,500 tonnes in January from December. The shipment per day decreased by 500 tonnes to 4,600 tonnes. H-beam delivery to the distributors decreased by 8.0% to 85,400 tonnes. The inventory increased due to low shipment.

The inventory increased by 2.4% to 69,500 tonnes in eight areas, Sapporo, Tohoku, Niigata, Toyama, Shizuoka, Shikoku, Chugoku and Kyusyu. H-beam delivery to the dealers increased by 5.9% to 33,900 tonnes while the shipment increased by 0.9% to 32,300 tonnes. The inventory to shipment ratio worsened by 0.07 points to 2.15 months.