By end-August, inventories of key flat-rolled carbon steel products held by Japanese steel producers, coil centers and distributors nationwide approximated 4.47 million tonnes, up 2.2% on month after two consecutive months of declines, according to the latest data from Nippon Steel. Market sources attributed the rise to seasonal reasons as there were fewer business days with a couple holidays in the month, though the overall stock level remained high.
The stocks including hot-rolled (HR), cold-rolled (CR) and coated coils and sheets were 8.9% higher on year, or having been above 4 million tonnes since August 2021, the data showed.
A flat steel trader in Tokyo observed that flat stocks in August didn’t increase as much as expected because Japanese integrated mills had been trying to thin their flat stocks.
“It might be partially due to the improvement in steel consumption by some manufacturers. And we expect their operations to improve further in coming months, so flat stocks may start to decline soon,” he predicted.
Bur a second steel trader in Tokyo warned of the uncertainty in the volume of imported materials.
“Japanese Yen has been weak and Japanese buyers would usually slow down the pace of booking imported materials. But the actual arrival volume was higher, so the movement has to be monitored very cautiously,” he said.
In August, Japan imported 271,576 tonnes of HRC, CRC and galvanized sheets in total, up 10.7% on month and 34.6% higher on year, Mysteel Global calculated based on the latest data from Japan Iron & Steel Federation.
The second trader said the surge in August imports was partially due to the timing of unloading at ports.
“Congestion at some ports around Tokyo had been slightly improved in August, and those unloaded cargoes were counted as imports of the month. But we also heard that congestion remained, so the actual volume of imported arrivals and how it influenced Japan’s total flat stocks was still unclear,” he said.
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 agreemeement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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