Colored Steel Sheet Price Drops around Tokyo

Some dealers are reducing reselling price for colored galvanizing steel sheet by 3,000-10,000 yen per tonne compared with the center value around Tokyo. The market center price is around 260,000 yen per tonne for small coil with 0.35 millimeters thick and 914 mm width and around 234,000 yen for large coil. Sheet makers continue output reductions by about 50% from a year earlier but inventory adjustment hasn’t advanced due to slow sales. Hot coil price is expected to lower in a short term. However, colored sheet makers and dealers hold large inventory with low shipment.

Demand for colored sheet seasonally decreases for January-March every year when construction works of roofs or outside walls stop. Makers’ shipment is decreasing month by month this year when users take precedence of the inventory adjustment. Users are holding off material procurement with an expectation for price down.

Colored sheet makers are reducing their outputs. Their profits are significantly worsening. They may enter tough price negotiation with users in fiscal 2009 starting April if hot coil price widely decreases.