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| Tokyo Steel Reports March Price Cuts For All Steel Products |
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Japan's largest electric steelmaker Tokyo Steel Mfg Co announced Feb 16 that the company has decided to reduce the list prices of all the steel products in its domestic supply contracts for March 2009, a price reduction across the board for the first time in three months since December 2008. The company describes the decision as what is intended to avoid a further production cutback while fighting inflows of steel products from abroad. Price reductions are Y5,000/ton each for H-beams, I-beams, channels, checkered H-beams, U-piles, and deformed bars; Y3,000/tons for wire rods; and Y10,000/ton each for HR coils, pickled HR coils, hot-dip galvanized sheets, checkered coils, HR sheets, pickled HR sheets, checkered plates, and heavy plates. As a result, the new list prices of main products in base sizes are Y73,000/ton FOT (free on truck); Y74,000/ton FOT for I-beams; Y82,000/ton FOT for U-piles; Y52,000/ton CIF for deformed bars; Y57,000/ton FOT for HR coils; Y60,000/ton FOT for pickled HR coils; and Y65,000/ton FOT for checkered plates. Naoto Ohori, Tokyo Steel's managing director and general manager of marketing, made his comments Feb 16 to the following effect. <>The world's economic activities are fast slowing down in a messs of the global economy, leading to a pronounced fall in demand for steel products across various nations. In Japan, inflows of steel products from abroad indicate a conspicuous growth at a time when domestic steel companies are forced to adjust production and employment. At the present juncture, Tokyo Steel has concluded that the company should revise the domestic sales prices of all the steel products in its March supply contracts. The company believes that the new sales prices will prove competitive enough to fight steel imports into Japan, where domestic steel market conditions are expected to bring a bottom of prices shortly. <>Tokyo Steel is apprehensive about protectionist moves abroad, antisocial acts at home against terms under contract, and domestic moves seeking postsale price revisions or adjustments. The company is willing to negotiate export sales of products if there are inquiries for supplies at prices to meet the going prices of domestic deals. But the company remains noncommittal to any export deal so far because overseas steel markets have yet to settle down. <>Tokyo Steel is contemplating continuing a 50% cutback in its February-March crude steel production that will stand at a monthly level of 150,000 ton, compared with the peak level in August last year. There is a possibility that the current system of crude steel production will continue in and after April unless demand for steel products recovers. As to finished steel products, the company sets March production levels at 60,000 tons for H-beams, 50,000-60,000 tons for HR coils, and 20,000-30,000 tons for heavy plates. <>Japan's domestic market prices of locally available ferrous scrap have turned somewhat weak until now. But Tokyo Steel still faces inadequate arrivals of local ferrous scrap at its works, arrivals that compare with what is required in steel operations. |
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| last modified : Fri 20 Feb, 2009 [09:57] |
