Tokyo Steel Cuts Steel Price by 2,000 yen/t

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced on Monday the firm decreases the selling price by 2,000 yen for all items excluding wire rod for distributors for January order. With the price cut, the H-beam price hits the lowest level since February 2004 order while the hot rolled coil price decreases to the lowest level since July 2009 order. The firm reduced the price for most of the items when the domestic market price accelerated to decrease and the import could increase under higher yen rate while the firm left the wire rod price unchanged due to relative high level of order backlog.

The firm sees domestic steel market is uncertain when the price would hit bottom while domestic investment is very slow for facility and condominium under Japanese economy uncertainty and civil work reduction by new administration. The firm sees domestic integrated and electric furnace steel makers contribute to the oversupply condition due to the higher production under slow demand.

The firm recognizes offshore steel market price increases due to higher raw materials cost when steel production keeps high mainly in China. The firm cannot get new export order under higher yen rate while Japanese integrated steel makers get the order at around FOB US$ 520 per tonne for hot coil and around US$ 550 for H-beam.

The firm also reduced the selling price from the inventory sales by 2,000 yen to 52,000 yen per tonne for concrete reinforcing steel bar, to 65,000 yen for H- beam and to 63,000 yen for plate.

The firm launches wider flat steel products for January order. The firm offers 1,630 millimeters width flat steel for hot coil, checkered coil, hot rolled flat steel and checkered plate while the firm offered the flat steel with up to 1,320 mm. New hot strip mill at Tahara plant in Aichi enables the firm to offer the wider products. The firm sells the products from new mill as non-standard product with same level of grade as SS400 until the mill can get certification of Japanese Industrial Standard. The firm temporarily produces only the wider products with 2-22 mm thick for coil and 6-22 mm thick for cut sheet at Tahara.