Japan Makers Eye Price Hike for Seamless & Welded Steel Pipe

Japanese steel pipe makers consider price hike for seamless tube and welded pipe for domestic market. The seamless tube supply gets tighter under strong demand but the price gap between domestic market and export gets wider. Higher hot rolled coil import price under tight supply pressures welded pipe price. The domestic pipe makers started study to improve the price level after they got higher price for galvanizing pipe products. Japanese major seamless tube makers enjoy the higher export of high valued products under strong demand from oil major companies. The domestic demand is also firm for construction and industrial machinery, shipbuilding and chemical plant. The major 3 firms including Sumitomo Metal Industries, JFE Steel and Tenaris NKK Tubes cannot meet the strong demand despite of the expansion effort for high valued products. Japanese welded pipe makers have trouble to secure hot coil requirement under limited supply from domestic integrated steel makers. Their cost increases when offshore hot coil suppliers in China, Taiwan and South Korea hiked the export price. Japanese hot coil suppliers also indicate the price hike. The welded pipe makers eye price hike both for distributors and contract users to improve the profitability.