Japan Major Steels to Settle Hot Coil Price to South Korea Soon

Japanese integrated steel makers are concluding negotiation with South Korean rerollers for hot rolled coil export for October-December. Some rerollers show willingness to accept more than FOB US$ 550 per tonne and Japanese major steel makers try to secure the volume for the rerollers while other rerollers still resisted the higher price. Japanese major steels could reject the hot coil shipment in October to certain rerollers without agreement for the higher price when Japanese steels’ limited supply of hot coil under higher export demand.

Japanese major steels try to increase the export price for sheet steel for October-December shipment to improve the profitability. The makers already got more than US$ 100 per tonne of hike for tinplate and electrical steel compared with July-September shipment. The steels also got some orders with more than FOB US$ 600 to South Asian buyers, which is around US$ 100 higher than previous quarter.

Steel sheet demand is getting firm when the steel demand turned into recovery worldwide. Japanese steel makers also increase the production level thanks to firm export demand while the makers are still in production cut mode under slow domestic demand. Japanese major steels try to meet the higher hot coil demand from Brazil and China while their supply ability is limited with idling blast furnaces, some blast furnace troubles and maintenances.

However, Chinese sheet steel market price started to decrease after the increase since May. Baoshan Iron and Steel reduced the hot coil domestic selling price by 200 yuan per tonne for October shipment. South Korean rerollers try to get less than US$ 550 per tonne from Japanese steels under decreasing Chinese market. South Korean rerollers, however, try to secure more hot coil volume to increase the production under recovering South Korean economy.