Japan H-Beam Stock Kept Flat in May

Japanese H-beam inventory held by distributors belonging to Tokiwa-kai, a group of distributors dealing Nippon Steel’s H-beam, increased by 0.4% to 206,800 tonnes at the end of May from a month ago, according to Nippon Steel. The number of Tokiwa-kai members increased and the inventory slightly increased. Nippon Steel said H-beam orders from users and dealers’ shipment kept low in May while the inventory maintained flat by makers’ output reduction. The inventory rate to the shipment decreased by 0.02 points to 2.47 months. Nippon Steel will continue output reduction by 60-70% compared with the common operation rate.

Nippon Steel said postponed building construction projects are expected to start after autumn. Dealers’ shipment is likely to keep low for a while.

H-beam inventory in Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya increased by 8.1% at the end of May from a month earlier. The arrivals to the dealers from makers increased by 26.3% to 56,309 tonnes in May in 3 areas. The shipment from dealers increased by 0.2% to 48,103 tonnes in May in 3 areas. The inventory rate decreased by 0.28 points to 2.58 months to the shipment in 3 areas, which closed to 2 months of decent level.

The inventory in 8 areas including Sapporo, Tohoku, Niigata, and Kyusyu decreased by 7.2% to 95,600 tonnes at the end of May from a month ago. The inventory rate in 8 areas lowered by 0.28 points to 2.68 months to the shipment, which closed to 2 months of decent level, too.