Rebar Market Price Decreases by 1,000 Yen/t around Tokyo

Reinforcing steel bar market price decreased by 1,000 yen to around 57,000 yen per tonne for base size products directly delivered from makers to users around Tokyo compared with last week. The market price decreased for the first time in 2 months. Small-middle class general contractors seem accepting orders but large general contractors have few orders for large building projects. General contractors are requiring severe price cut to rebar makers and dealers. Some dealers accepted orders at low price. The market price would maintain weak for a while.

Rebar market price increased by 2,000 yen to 58,000 yen several months ago while downturned to reflect ferrous scrap price down and low demand for building materials. Large dealers’ order volume decreased by 50,000 tonnes to 150,000-160,000 tonnes in September from 200,000 tonnes in August, which is estimated to keep low in October.

On the other hand, small dealers maintain the reselling price at 62,000 yen. A small dealer source said it is difficult to keep the reselling price despite of users’ strong requirement for price cut. Demand for building materials is likely to maintain stagnant and ferrous scrap price is unlikely to rebound in a short term. Rebar market price is forecasted to continue declining.