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| $40-50 Price Cut Agreed In Japanese TMBP Exports To Thailand, Malaysia |
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Japanese integrated steelmakers have agreed on a price reduction of US$40-50/ton in their biannual deals of TMBP exports to tinplate manufacturers in Thailand and Malaysia for shipments in January-June 2006, TEX Report learned Wednesday. As a result, the new prices are estimated at a level of US$750/ton FOB. There are cases of an agreed provision this time for a review of the TMBP price for the April-June quarter if tinplate transaction prices have turned down in Asia. The Japanese steelmakers see recoveirng TMBP inquiries from Thailand and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The existing inquiries from Singapore and Malaysia mark a 30% increase for March shipment onward, compared with the level of a quarter ago. But the current pace of inquiries has yet to return to a usual one, according to market sources. Meanwhile, the Japanese steelmakers already done with their TMBP export negotiations on shipments to Asian destinations in the January-March quarter of this year. The prices under contract are levels of US$730-750/ton FOB that mark a reduction of US$30-60. As to China, though, the Japanese steelmakers have yet to work out their TMBP deals with some tinplate producers there. The Japanese steelmakers face pressure for a certain price reduction to meet what China's top integrated steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (Baosteel) has executed in its domestic sales of tinplate. Baosteel is known to have cut the asking price by Yn500/ton (a level of US$62/ton). If the Japanese steelmakers agree to follow Baosteel's tinplate price reduction, the new prices of Japanese TMBP for Chinese tinplate production will decline to a level of US$600/ton FOB, market sources estimate. |
| last modified : Tue 31 Jan, 2006 [10:39] |
