Nippon Steel to Hike Special Steel Wire Rod by 10,000 yen/t

Nippon Steel announced on Thursday the firm increases the selling price of special steel wire rod by 10,000 yen per tonne or 10-15% for all applications for May order or July shipment. The attempt is first since April 2005 shipment. The firm tries to improve the profitability enough to reproducible level by passing higher cost for nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, energy and freight. The firm also introduces nickel surcharge mechanism for nickel rich items including spring steel and prestressed concrete steel wire under surging nickel ingot price.The firm cannot meet all of orders and adjusts the delivery schedule with the users despite of full capacity operations when the demand is historical high for automobile, shipbuilding and building construction. The firm expects the demand keeps growing. The firm decided the hike to keep producing the high quality products, which needs complicated production processes for each application to use for critical safety parts, under tight supply. The domestic demand is monthly 120,000-130,000 tonnes including prestressed concrete steel wire, spring steel, welding materials, tire cord and wire rope. The top maker of Nippon Steel has around 50% market share. Nippon Steel increased the selling price by 10,000 yen per tonne for special steel bar and bar in coil for April shipment and by more than 5,000 yen for carbon steel wire rod for July shipment. With the new hike, the firm increases price for all steel bar and wire rod items.