Nippon Steel to Hike Plate Steel 10,000 yen/t

Nippon Steel announced on Tuesday the firm increases the selling price of plate steel and checkered plate by 10,000 yen per tonne for distributors for August order. The firm increases the price by total 40,000 yen including 20,000 yen in March and 10,000 yen in May. The firm tries to improve the lower price than international level when the offshore price surges under tight supply. Worldwide plate demand is strong for shipbuilding, construction machinery and development of infrastructure. The international market price reached US$ 1,300-1,400 per tonne compared with around US$ 800 at end of January. The domestic demand is expected to increase by around 10% for fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007. The domestic supply is limited to meet the strong demand despite of the marginal expansion by domestic makers. The makers expect the supply is around 1 million tonnes per year short for domestic market. Japanese major steel makers settled to double the Australian iron ore price for fiscal 2008 from fiscal 2007, which is higher than 65% hike for Brazilian ore. Nippon Steel decided the additional hike when the raw materials cost is higher than expected before when ferrous scrap price and other materials cost keeps increasing. Plate market price already reached 120,000 yen per tonne for standard sized products. The market price could increase more when the dealers should try to pass the higher cost price on the market despite of the slower demand due to low level building activity.