Japanese Rebar Market Price Continues Lowering to 54,000 Yen/t

Market price of concrete reinforcing steel bar continues declining in Japan. The current price is around 54,000 yen per tonne for base sized products directly delivered from makers to users, down by 2,000 yen per tonne around Tokyo and by 1,000 yen around Osaka compared with the previous weak. General contractors are in severe competitions with few orders for construction and civil engineering. General contractors strongly request price cut for reinforcement placing works and rebar market price is impacted. Some rebar dealers offer the price less than 50,000 yen. The resistance line of the market price seems at around 50,000 yen.

Around Tokyo, local rebar makers’ order receipts seem 80,000-90,000 tonnes in November, which were 100,000 tonnes in October. Their order receipts were approximately 300,000 tonnes in July and August when speculative demand increased. The demand has declined by 60-70% by November. Reinforcement workers are approving severe price down requests from general contractors to secure work volumes. Consequently, rebar market price is lowering.

Demand shrinkage is also serious around Osaka. Rebar dealers’ sales volume decreased by 60-70% from a year earlier with little demand from constructions. A distributor source said there are few quotation requests and rebar sales are not expected to recover even in January. At the same time, rebar dealers are afraid of constructors’ bankruptcy before the year end and the new year.