Japan’s largest H-beam producer, Nippon Steel has decided to keep its H-beam list prices unchanged for June spot sales, despite that spot sales prices have been dropping and H-beam stocks among the domestic dealers have stayed at a rather adequate level even after recent declines.
“We will monitor the market trend closely, and we may have to be prepared to lift our prices at the first minute possible to transfer some added costs,” a Nippon Steel official told Mysteel Global on June 10.
Nippon Steel’s subsidiary – Nippon Steel Structural Shapes Corporation – in Wakayama, West Japan, will also roll over its H-beam prices for June sales, according to the company.
Nippon Steel does not disclose its H-beam list prices but the spot prices of SS400 grade 200x100mm H-beams in Tokyo are at around Yen 74,000-75,000/MT($686-695/t), down Yen 2,000/t on month or Yen 7,000/t from January, sources confirmed.
By the end of May, H-beam stocks at a group called Tokiwakai with 90 distributors close to Nippon Steel totaled 177,800 MT, down 3,600 MT or 2% on month, or a new low in six month..
The group of distributors usually hold nearly 90% of all H-beam stocks among all the Japanese distributors, Mysteel Global notes.
The decrease in the H-beam stocks was mainly because of less supply from steel mills, a Tokyo trader said. “We expect Japan’s economic activities and deliveries of construction steel to recover gradually, and steel stocks including H-beam may decline further in the coming months should domestic steel producers keep supply volumes low,” he added.
H-beam demand from the construction sector should not decline sharply in the near term, even though some construction projectshave been canceled or postponed because of worsening financial situations among the developers, as the ongoing construction activities that have resumed slowly since May 7 will still consume quite some steel, according to the trader.
Japan’s H-beam output in April totaled 272,300 MT, down 19.8% on year and 5.2% lower on month, while the country’s H-beam orders totaled 298,955 MT for March, down 12.2% on year but up 35.2% on month, according to the latest data available, as reported.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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