Lower Demand and Price of Steel Wire Rod Products

Trading is stagnant in Tokyo of steel products manufactured from ordinary wire rod even though in the demand season. The demand of low-carbon steel wire declines sharply in civil engineering fields due to cut of public investment. The demand decrease of other products is accelerated by the continuous inflow of cheaper imports mainly from China. The market price is also impacted by the imports and decreasing gradually. The market price is around 97,000 yen per tonne for ordinary round nail with 100 millimeters long, around 96,000 yen per tonne for annealed low-carbon steel wire with 4 millimeters thick, around 90,000 yen per tonne for standard low-carbon steel wire with 4 millimeters thick and around 82,000 yen per tonne for ordinary steel wire with 4 millimeters thick. Some makers of secondary concrete products, the large users of low-carbon steel wire, have become bankrupt since the end of 2005 in Japan. The business circumstance is much severe for civil engineering related makers with the sharp decrease of public works even in March, the demand season before.