Steel Sheet Price Keeps Flat in Tokyo

The market price is flat at 65,000-67,000 yen per tonne for hot-rolled steel sheet, at 75,000-77,000 yen per tonne for pickled steel sheet and at 80,000-81,000 yen per tonne for cold-rolled steel sheet in Tokyo.Steel sheet shipment is active for automobiles, while increasing for building materials as well. The processing volume maintains steady at coil centers. However, trading is not so active among wholesalers under the influence of purchase integration by large contract users.Hot-rolled steel sheet with higher price is delivered to wholesalers from Tokyo Steel Manufacturing and POSCO. Some coil centers have much loss due to the increase of cost price and aim to raise the reselling price.Japanese steel sheet inventory for domestic shipment increased to 4.17 million tonnes at the end of August, which backed away from 4 million tonnes of Japanese makers’ target, though dealers are concerned about their profitability. The supply is not tight and the market price is difficult to increase soon.