Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill and a leading H-beam producer, has decided to keep its H-beam prices for June domestic spot sales unchanged on month, so that the market can use another month to digest the previous hikes by producers, the company announced on June 21.
Nippon Steel Structural Shapes, Nippon Steel’s subsidiary in Wakayama in western Japan, has also rolled over its H-beam prices for this month, with cutting acceptance or orders by 30% compared to those in May because of its planned shutdown in July, according to the company.
Both companies had previously added Yen 5,000/tonne ($37/t) for April sales, but kept the prices unchanged for May, as reported.
Nippon Steel and its subsidiary do not reveal their list prices, but as of Wednesday morning, deals in Tokyo for SS400 grade 200x100mm H-beams were transacted at Yen 120,000-121,000/t, up Yen 2,000/t on month, sources confirmed.
“Further price hike is needed to transfer the rise in our production costs, but we will wait a month and decide our price policy for the next month,” a company official said.
A Tokyo-based construction steel trader shared demand of H-beams in the spot market is not active, but that from construction project-based contracts has been firm and is expected to become active after summer. “Japan’s H-beam stocks have been kept at adequate levels, and supply is expected to become tighter, so we believe H-beam market prices will rise steadily,” he predicted.
By the end of May, H-beam stocks held by Nippon Steel’s Tokiwakai group of some 90 distributors across Japan totaled 188,300 tonnes, down 1.7% on month and 7.4% lower on year, marking the third consecutive on-month decline, Mysteel Global noted.
As for construction project-based beams, Nippon Steel has decided to add Yen 5,000/t to its base prices, also to transfer the rise in production costs, making the total hike in the current fiscal year which started from April reach Yen 25,000/t.
The trader observed that Nippon Steel is rushing to lift its H-beam prices as much as possible, because demand from those construction projects has been firm, and the company has to adjust the prices higher to enjoy some profits.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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