Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and Toyota Agrees to Raise the Price of Steel Sheet for Automobile

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal and Toyota Motor agreed to raise the price of steel sheet for automobile for the first half of fiscal 2013 by 10,000 yen per ton in July 22nd. It is the background of increasing cost for manufacturing in Japan due to price hike of material price including iron ore and coking coal and improvement of high yen. Price hike is the first time in 2 years. The price negotiation sometimes set the pace for the business field, the negotiation with other automobile makers is also likely to reach settlement at almost same level price hike.