Nippon Steel Raises H-beam Price by 15,000 Yen/t in April

Nippon Steel announced the price hike of H-beam by 15,000 yen per tonne effective for April contracts to the distributors. The firm raises the price for 3 consecutive months by total 23,000 yen. The firm decided the additional hike when H-beam demand is strong at overseas market and raw material prices are rising rapidly. Nippon Steel may raise the price more.

Distributors’ H-beam inventory became the moderate level. Some stock products are short at the dealers. H-beam inventory held by the members of Tokiwa-kai, which is a group of distributors dealing Nippon Steel’s products, represented below 200,000 tonnes for the first time in 22 years. The supply and demand balance is tightening in domestic market. Distributors will try to raise the reselling price to follow Nippon Steel’s hike.

H-beam market price is 65,000-66,000 yen per tonne around Tokyo. Dealers are trying to raise the reselling price to 70,000 yen at present. Their announcement may reach 75,000 yen next week. They aim to increase the reselling price before higher price products will be delivered from Nippon Steel.

Dealers’ cost price is estimated to reach 80,000 yen per tonne. Dealers should raise the reselling price to minimum 85,000 yen to gain the profit. Dealers aim to increase the reselling price to 80,000 yen in early April.

Meanwhile, Nippon Steel keeps H-beam output reduction when domestic demand stays low. Domestic H-beam demand is forecasted to level off at 2.5-2.6 million tonnes per year in fiscal 2010 starting in April.