Japan Major Steels Seek US$ 150/t Tinplate Hike

Japanese integrated steel makers offer around US$ 150 per tonne of export price hike for tinplate products for Asian buyers for July-September from April-June level. The makers also try to increase the black plate export price by US$ 100 or more. Their targeted price is US$ 1,300 for black plate and US$ 1,500 for tinplate. They try to pass higher tin cost, which is accumulated to US$ 50-60 per tonne since 2010, through the aggressive hike after they realized averaged US$ 150 of hike for April-June.

The steel makers see Asian demand is firm for can material steel. The demand is strong for canned pineapple and vegetable in Thailand while the demand is slow for canned seafood under slump for water raising in the country. The price of can material steel is expected to increase under the strong demand while the can makers’ inventory is thin both for material and can. Japanese steel makers see Asian buyers try to avoid overstock after they were suffered from overstock during downturn trend in 2008.

Japanese steel makers see Asian rivals including Baosteel Group of China and POSCO of South Korea increase the selling price but the export volume wouldn’t increase. Baosteel increased the tinplate price by 200 yuan per tonne for domestic market for July, which represents total 1,300 yuan or US$ 200 per tonne of hike since April. However, Chinese tinplate export was 180,000 tonnes in January-March, which was around 20% lower than October-December level, when Chinese makers reduce the spot export to meet strong domestic demand.

POSCO announced the firm increases the domestic selling price of black plate by 160,000 won per tonne effective on April 22 order. Dongbu Steel apparently shifts to seek profitable price level. South Korean export also decreases to 32,000 tonnes in April compared with recent peak of 48,000 tonnes in February. Japanese steel makers see Ton Yi Industrial of Taiwan’s activity has little impacts on their export price when the Taiwanese maker keeps stable export volume at monthly 10,000-20,000 tonnes.