Nippon Steel to Hike Building Plate, Hyper Beam Price

Nippon Steel increases the selling price of building steel materials. The firm increases the price by around 10,000 yen per tonne for H-beam with uniform depth and width in a same size series and by around 15,000 yen for plate steel for building. The firm also increases the selling price of plate by 5,000 yen for distributors for February order after the 5,000 yen hike for January order.

The firm tries to improve the selling price level of Hyper beam, which is H-beam with uniform depth and width in a same size series, and building plate under the higher cost for iron ore and coking coal. The firm expects the price hike could improve steel structural fabricators’ processing charge market. The firm eyes additional price hike depending on the raw materials situation.

Japanese plate steel supply gets tighter due to higher demand for shipbuilding, construction machinery and energy industry. The firm tries to increase the selling price when the price level remains low due to slow domestic demand for steel building and bridge while the price improved for dealers.

The firm increased the selling price of H-beam by total 13,000 yen per tonne both for distributors in December and January and realized higher price for spot buyers. The dealers’ reselling price already increased by around 10,000 yen. The firm keeps seeking higher price for spot buyers.

The price hike could lift market price at dealers’ market. However, the higher price could increase the risk for unrecoverable account receivable for distributors when the higher price squeezes the users’ immediate profitability.