Steel Building Materials Price Keeps Flat in Tokyo

The market prices of steel products for building construction keeps flat around Tokyo when dealers’ sales are much slow due to stagnant construction starts impacted by new Japanese building standard law.H-beam market price is around 80,000 yen per tonne for base size with 200 by 100 millimeters width around Tokyo. Angle steel market price is flat at 75,000-77,000 yen per tonne for product with 6 millimeters thick and 50 mm width and channel price is 81,000-83,000 yen for product with 5 mm thick, 50 by 100 widths around Tokyo. Large diameter column steel price is around 102,000 yen per tonne for product with 12 millimeters thick and 300 by 300 mm width including processing charge.Makers raised these products’ selling price by 3,000-5,000 yen per tonne in July-September. Dealers are trying to pass the makers’ price hike on reselling prices but the hike has not advanced. Dealer source said the market prices are sustained by dealers’ firm selling stances. The construction starts are unlikely to recover to the usual level soon. Dealers’ shipment would not recover within this year.Credit risk for dealers is increasing. Japanese government launched out the measure to lend safety net funds for small-medium sized enterprises concerned with building construction. The counseling volume for the lending already exceeded about 300 cases.Steel makers started out the supply adjustment by the output reduction. They seek to raise the selling price again to reflect increasing cost pressures by higher material prices. However, dealers haven’t passed makers’ previous hike in summer on the reselling prices yet.