Strong Price of Equal Angle and Channel Steel in Tokyo

The market price of shape steel is flat with potential increase at 70,000 yen per tonne for equal angle steel with 6 millimeters thick and 50 mm width and at 75,000-76,000 yen per tonne for channel steel with 5 mm thick and 50 by 100 mm width at dealers’ reselling price without freight around Tokyo. The shipment improved relatively at dealers after summer holidays in mid August but is not strong enough to impact the market price. Shape steel makers announced they set their selling prices unchanged for September selling. The market price seems to keep flat for a while.Dealers have stock out of channel steel in some sizes. There are some cases that some makers do not accept the channel steel orders from dealers for some sizes. Especially the demand for large size products is strong which are supplied from the makers to the users directly. Dealers expect some orders might turn into the market dealers under the tight supply.The market inventory shifted to the new price products that the makers hiked. Dealers aim to achieve 71,000 yen per tonne for equal angle and 77,000 yen for channel before the demand season in autumn. Each maker continues to reduce the order reception in September to adjust the supply and demand.