Tokyo Steel Announces 2,000-3,000 yen/t Additional Price Hike

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm increases the selling price for all items for distributors for February order, which is the across the board price hike for 2 months in a row. The price increase is 2,000 yen per tonne for flat steel products and 3,000 yen for long products to improve the lower price level. The firm eyes additional price hike for March order depending on Chinese steel and raw materials market and foreign exchange rate after Chinese New Year.

The firm minimized the price hike to find trend for raw materials market when ferrous scrap price increase slows recently. The firm tries to be cautious for price hike to secure margin for sustainable manner while the firm concerns rushing price hike could result in sharp price down.

The firm cannot get many export order despite of the strong interest from Southeast Asian buyers. The firm offers FOB US$ 720-730 per tonne for hot rolled coil and around US$ 900 for H-beam. The buyers apparently hold the order for the high offer.

The firm starts planned maintenance in the week for 6 days work at Okayama and Utsunomiya plants and for 13 days work at Kyushu plant starting. The firm plans to make monthly 150,000 tonnes of products in January and February and expects slight higher production in March. The firm plans to increase the H-beam production to 50,000 tonnes level in February while the production decreases to less than 50,000 tonnes in January.

The firm offers domestic spot buyers at 80,000 yen per tonne for H-beam, 65,000 yen for concrete reinforcing steel bar and 77,000 yen for plate steel.