Weak H-beam Price around Tokyo

H-beam market price is weak at 80,000 yen per tonne at dealers’ sites without freight around Tokyo. Market price is expected to decrease when Tokyo Steel Manufacturing reduced its H-beam selling price by 7,000 yen per tonne for July contracts and dealers’ sales volume maintains the low level. Some dealers are accepting price cut due to even fewer orders in June. The demand is unlikely to recover for a while.

Local demand for steel frame was 93,817 tonnes in March and 130,735 tonnes in April around Tokyo. The demand increased by 11.5% in April from a year earlier but represented 20% year-to-year minus for January-March. H-beam inventory held by members of Tokiwa-kai, a group of distributors dealing Nippon Steel’s products, increased by 5.4% to 41,251 tonnes in Tokyo at the end of April from a month earlier.

Many dealers say their shipment volume per day is decreasing in June compared with May. Market inventory is excess against the actual demand. Dealers are trying to reduce H-beam inventory for July-August since the demand recovery is unexpected.

Tokyo Steel’s selling price is 73,000 yen per tonne against steel structure fabricators, lower by 5,000 yen or more than the market price. As a result, fabricators are offering price down against dealers even at below 80,000 yen.