Japanese Brass Bar Users Consider Adoption of South Korean Products

Japanese brass bar users are currently considering adoption of South Korean products. The number of domestic brass bar makers has decreased and price competitions have settled down among domestic suppliers. Meanwhile, brass bar users are suffering severe price cut offers from the end users. Brass bar users are seeking new supply sources through traders and wholesalers.

One brass bar user, who consume brass bar at 20-30 tonnes per month, revealed the company recently started consideration about brass bar purchase from South Korean major maker through Japanese trading house since the end customers are strengthening price cut requests under weak economy. South Korean brass bar is said cheaper than Japanese products by 40-50 yen per kilogram while the product quality has been also improved in recent years, he said.

In Japan, distributing streamlines are currently fixed with fewer brass bar makers and less price competitions than before. It is difficult for brass bar users to cultivate new procurement channels. The brass bar user said the reselling price doesn’t change even though they select another domestic makers’ product at the distributor. Thus they are forced to examine overseas items for additional cost down.

South Korean brass bars have been already used for water taps, including adoption by Japanese major house maker. One distributor explained some of Japanese end users have allowed price quotation with certified offshore brass bars since late 2011.

In China, some of Japanese brass bar processors adopt South Korean products at their local sites. However, their local sales are currently decreasing due to slowdown of Chinese economy and shifting to the export to Japan. One Japanese brass bar processor described the imported end products are remarkably cheaper than domestic products.

Japanese brass bar import from South Korea was approximately 2,500 tonnes in CY2011, which accounted for 2% against the domestic production volume, according to Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, South Korea’s brass bar export totaled approximately 54,000 tonnes in CY2011. They seem to have enough capacity to increase brass bar export more to Japan.