Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill and a leading H-beam producer, has decided to roll over its H-beam prices for the sixth month for October domestic spot sales, though the company said it would consider lifting prices to transfer the rise in production costs from next month.
Nippon Steel Structural Shapes, Nippon Steel’s subsidiary in Wakayama in western Japan, has also rolled over its H-beam prices for October, to give the market another month to digest the previous hikes by producers.
Both companies had added a total of Yen 15,000/tonne ($100/t) for February-April sales, but then kept their prices unchanged since May, as reported.
Nippon Steel and Nippon Steel Structural Shapes do not reveal their list prices. But as of Thursday morning, deals for SS400 grade 200x100mm H-beams in Tokyo were being transacted at Yen 125,000-126,000/t, unchanged for two months, but up by Yen 7,000/t since May.
A Tokyo-based construction steel trader shared that stocks of H-beams had been kept at adequate levels and demand is expected to pick up during October-March 2023 with planned construction projects underway, so supply will become tighter.
“We expect H-beam market condition to improve in coming months and producers will have to transfer the rise in costs as early as possible because of the surge in energy prices. And weaker Yen is also driving up their imported material costs, so we expect that buyers will have to agree on higher prices,” he predicted.
By end-September, H-beam stocks held by Nippon Steel’s Tokiwakai group of some 90 distributors across Japan totaled 185,100 tonnes, up 0.3% on month and 2.7% higher on year, according to the company.
A Nippon Steel official explained that stocks increased slightly by end-September, but deliveries from distributors had been increasing, so actual supply has become tighter. “Our production of H-beam has been at a high level and it will be continued,” he added.
Japan produced approximated 2.47 million tonnes of H-beams over January-August, up 5.7% on year, according to the latest data released by Japan Iron & Steel Federation.
Written by Yoko Manabe, yoko.manabe@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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