Firm Sheet Steel Price in Tokyo

Market price of sheet steel is flat at 67,000-69,000 yen per tonne for hot rolled steel, 75,000-77,000 yen for pickling steel and 81,000-82,000 yen for cold rolled steel around Tokyo. The price is likely to increase when the construction demand recovers. However, the price increase could be slow when the demand condition is much different between for makers and for distributors. The distributors have some stock out sizes mainly for hot coil in the inventory when the stock level gets lower. The supply balance is expected to improve when import will keep low level under price hikes for July-September by offshore makers. Domestic distributors expect higher market price and coil centers try to increase the reselling price. However, the distributors cannot increase the reselling price when the shipment is still slow along with output reduction by Nissan Motor. The demand is getting lower structurally when major users increase the central purchasing.