Japan Hot, Cold, Coated Sheet Stock Drops by 2.6% in September

Japanese inventory of hot, cold and coated sheet steel for domestic shipment held by makers, distributors and processors decreased by 108,000 tonnes or 2.6% to 4.064 million tonnes at the end of September from August. With the lower stock at the all parties, the inventory decreased to the level in July after seasonal lower activity in August. Nippon Steel tries to decrease the stock to the target of less than 4 million tonnes by keeping the output to the demand level under the tight supply when the automobile output keeps higher level than expected. The inventory decreased by 2.8% to 1.715 million tonnes for makers, by 3.9% to 822,000 tonnes for distributors and by 1.7% to 1.527 million tonnes for processors at the end of September from August. The total inventory decreased by 4.6% to 2.127 million tonnes for hot rolled sheet and by 0.6% to 1.184 million tonnes for coated sheet while the cold sheet stock increased by 0.1% to 753,000 tonnes.