Sheet Steel Price to Rise in Tokyo

Sheet steel market price shows sign to increase around Tokyo. The dealers try to improve the reselling price with price hike by Tokyo Steel Manufacturing and offshore makers and progressing inventory adjustment while the demand recovery is weak for some applications. The market price is expected to increase in any despite of the demand uncertainty.

Hanwa Co. increased the reselling price by 5,000 yen per tonne for hot rolled flat steel for reselling from the inventory in the week while other dealers raised the offer price for cold rolled flat steel and coated steel. The dealers try to adjust lower priced transaction through the hike attempt.

The market price is 60,000-62,000 yen per tonne for hot rolled flat steel around Tokyo. The price is 60,000-63,000 yen for pickling steel, 73,000-77,000 yen for cold rolled flat steel, 85,000-88,000 yen for hot coil based coated steel and 95,000-98,000 yen for cold coil based coated steel.

Japanese sheet steel inventory decreased to 3.891 million tonnes at end of April, which decreased to less than normal level of 4 million tonnes for the first time in around 2 years. The inventory is estimated to decrease more in May due to low level purchase by the dealers and production cut by the makers. The dealers expand the purchase from other dealers to supplement the stock out sizes in June.

However, the demand just started to recover. Some automakers improve the production level but the level is still around 40% lower than the peak last year. Appliances makers also improve the operation for flat panel television and some items while the operation level is still low. Construction market is still very slow.