Weak Cold Sheet Price in Tokyo

Cold rolled steel sheet market price is weak at 86,000-88,000 yen per tonne around Tokyo. Dealers are trying to maintain the reselling price when Japanese integrated steel makers raised cold rolled sheet prices for July-September. However, there are few positive factors to support the market price level. The market price is likely to keep downtrend.

Japanese automobile output is increasing more than expected. Steel sheet processing volume recovered to above 90% of peak level at some coil centers in June. On the other hand, secondary and third dealers hold abundant inventories since they moved to speculative procurement before steel makers’ price hike.

End users keep material purchase just as much as immediate consumptions. They seem to feel the market price is unreasonable when large-lot users such as automakers haven’t raised their supplying material prices. Another negative factor is that spot iron ore price is recently lowering in China.