Price of Steel Sheet could Increase in Tokyo

The market price of steel sheet is likely to raise the level. Since the overseas market price rebounded at the latter part of March and Tokyo Steel Manufacturing raised the steel coil price by 4,000 yen per tonne and steel sheet price by 2,000 yen per tonne at the contract in April, coil centers and distributors prepare for coming upward trend. The inventory of hot rolled steel sheet, cold rolled steel and surface treatment steel at the end of March is expected to decrease slightly to around 4.2 million tonnes and it is still high level. However, the coil centers are likely to try to increase the selling price when the profitability is severe. The market price is around 67,000-69,000 yen per tonne for base size hot rolled steel sheet at dealer to dealer transaction. The price is around 75,000-77,000 yen for pickling steel, around 79,000-81,000 yen for cold rolled steel and 89,000-91,000 yen per tonne for surface treatment steel.