Japan: Tokyo Steel Keeps its Steel Price Stable For Mar'20 Deliveries

The Japanese leading electric-arc steel manufacturer, Tokyo Steel, has kept its steel prices unaltered for Mar'20 deliveries owing to limited trades. Thus, the company has kept its steel prices unchanged for the fifth consecutive month.

Effective prices of H shaped steel continue to hover at JPY 83,000/MT (USD 756.08/MT) and JPY 62,000/MT (USD 564.79/MT) for deformed steel bars (re-bars).

Along with this, the current export price for Hot Coil assessed at USD 500-510/MT FoB Japan, and H-section steels USD 580-600/MT FoB basis fell by USD 10/MT against the previous month offers.

In Feb'20, the company has outlined the production volume of 2,20,000 tons, which shall be bifurcated as 90,000 tons of H-section steel, 95,000 tons (inclusive of 20,000 tons for exports) of hot coils, and 15,000 tons of thick plates.

Last month the company had kept the prices steady amid the delayed construction projects led by slower growth in market activities, labor shortages, and limited processing capacities.

Kiyoshi Imamura, MD- Tokyo Steel commented that "Because of the low volume of transactions, the market price has not fallen significantly. Meanwhile, regarding the demand for building materials, large-scale properties have entered the off-season period before the Tokyo Olympics, and cargo movements have stagnated. On the other hand, inquiries have been made for small and medium-sized properties from April to June."

Further, regarding steel sheets, he shared that "market inventories are gradually declining, supply and demand adjustments have not been completed. Sales of imported materials have been seen occasionally at the end of the spring festival. The future of the market is unpredictable."

In addition to this, the spread of coronavirus in China affected the iron ore trade, and the export negotiations for steel products witness a significant decline. Thus, owing to fewer transactions, the company keeps its steel prices largely unchanged.

Tokyo steel has lowered its scrap purchase prices in Feb '20- Japanese domestic scrap prices are hovering at over 3 years low. Tokyo Steel has been lowering prices too.

After the said price cut, the company will pay JPY 20,500/MT for H2 scrap delivered to its Tahara plant in the central region, while the revised price for H2 delivery to the Utsunomiya plant in the Kanto region, and Kyushu works in the western region is JPY 20000/MT. For H2 delivered to Okayama plant and Takamatsu Steel Centre, the price will be JPY 19000/MT and JPY 18000/MT respectively.

~Inputs from Japan Metal Daily