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| Tokyo Steel Reports Y8,000 October Price Cut For Several Steel Products |
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Japan's largest electric steelmaker Tokyo Steel Mfg Co announced Sept 22 that the company has decided to reduce the list prices of several steel products by a uniform Y8,000/ton in its domestic supply contracts for October 2008. The company describes the uniform price reduction as intended to narrow price differences between domestic and foreign steel products. Of long products, deformed bars and wire rods are subject to the price reduction. Of flat products, the price reduction applies to HR coils, pickled HR coils, hot-dip galvanized coils, checkered coils, HR sheets, pickled HR sheets, and checkered plates. As a result, the new list prices of base sizes are Y92,000/ton CIF for deformed bars; Y97,000/ton FOT (free on truck) for HR coils; Y102,000/ton FOT for pickled HR coils; and Y103,000/ton FOT for checkered plates. Meanwhile, the current list prices of base sizes go unchanged at Y118,000/ton FOT for H-beams; Y119,000/ton FOT for I-beams; Y121,000/ton FOT for U-piles; and Y126,000/ton FOT for heavy plates. Naoto Ohori, Tokyo Steel's managing director and general manager of marketing, made his comments Sept 22 to the following effect. <>Steel market conditions both at home and abroad are in an adjustment phase amid enhances signs of a world economic slowdown in the financial crisis that has originated in the USA. With an uncertain economic outlook, there are fears that the credit crunch may affect corporate willingness to invest and consumer spending, leading to a fall in demand for steel products. <>On the part of Tokyo Steel, the company intends to respond with steel production cuts and export deals while watching how things go with steel market conditions at home and abroad. As to export sales of steel products, the company is set to stay selective in the deals it negotiate, seeking FOB price levels of US$1,050/ton for H-beams and US$950/ton for HR coils. <>Tokyo Steel sees no situation so far making a fuss about H-beam imports into Japan from China. But the company will have no option to fight back if import arrivals of Chinese H-beams have increased markedly. <>At present, the international market for steel products amounts to a nominal market. How the international market goes is unlikely to come into sight until several events are over. Among those events are lunar New Year holidays in South Korea, Ramadan lasting throughout September in the Middle East, and the Anniversary of the Founding of the People's Republic of China in October. <>It is unlikely that market prices of ferrous scrap will indicate a nonstop advance amid a deteriorating world economy. In fact, they have shown different fluctuations since the beginning of autumn, compared with what has happened in the past. Of late, prices of US No1 HMS for East Asia seem to have somewhat fallen from a level of US$430/ton C&F. |
| last modified : Mon 29 Sep, 2008 [11:15] |
