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| NSC Settles Rail Export Talks On FY08 Shipments To USA |
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Nippon Steel Corp (NSC) has settled its rail export negotiations with a major railroad corporation in the USA for shipments in Japanese fiscal 2008. The new contract provides for a considerable price increase of US$500/ton on FOB terms. The new contract covers six months from October 2008 to March 2009, succeeding the existing annual contract. The US railroad's purchase price of NSC rails this time is thought to have risen by nearly US$700/ton in an advance of US$100/ton or more in freight rates. It is understood that what NSC is supposed to provide represents a decrement of around 40%, compared with what was agreed in the year before. In the negotiations this time, NSC offered a half-year contract, a break with the past practice of negotiating an annual contract. The offer was intended to meet volatile cost factors such as prices of raw materials. Japanese integrated steelmakers have allocated most of their rail exports in the past to North America. But until now, they have broadened destinations of their rail exports to such resources-rich nations as Brazil, Australia and Russia, where rail demand is rising for improved or enlarged railway networks in infrastructure projects. As a result, the Japanese steelmakers' rail export volumes to the USA are on the decrease these days. Rail exports out of Japan to the USA totaled 94,456 tons in January-June 2008, down 12.7% from the same period of 2007. They totaled 31,696 tons in April-June 2008, down 41.6% from the corresponding period of 2007. |
| last modified : Thu 28 Aug, 2008 [10:48] |
