Kanto Steel Eyes 2,000 yen/t Hike for Rebar

Ibaraki based small sized steel bar maker, Kanto Steel considers increasing the selling price of concrete reinforcing steel bar by 2,000 yen per tonne for August order. The firm tries to pass the higher cost price for ferrous scrap and other raw materials and energy under the tight supply with seasonal maintenance outage by local makers. The selling price reaches 70,000 yen per tonne through the hike for the first time sine April. The firm increased the selling price by 3,000 yen per tonne each in January, February and April when ferrous scrap market price hit record level for the firm since the start in 1994. The firm tries to seek higher price to improve the profitability under the higher cost price. The firm tries to persuade the users to accept the higher price when the firm expects the demand keeps firm for July-September as same period of 2006.