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| Tokyo Steel Reports Flat October Prices For All Steel Products |
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Japan's largest electric steelmaker Tokyo Steel Mfg Co announced Sept 14 that the company intends to keep the list prices unchanged of all the steel products in its October contracts for domestic sales, which indicates flat prices for the gamut of the product mix for the first time in one year and two months since August last year. The current list prices of main products in base sizes are Y70,000/ton FOT (free on truck) for H-beams, Y79,000/ton FOT for U-piles, Y55,000/ton CIF for deformed bars, Y62,000/ton FOT for HR coils, Y82,000/ton FOT for hot-dip galvanized coils, Y70,000/ton FOT for checkered plates, and Y70,000/ton FOT for heavy plates. Naoto Ohori, Tokyo Steel's managing director and general manager of marketing, made his comments Sept 14 to the following effect. <>The company has decided to keep all the steel prices unchanged this time after due consideration of factors such as domestic demand for steel products, an appreciating yen to the US dollar, ferrous scrap market conditions at home, and China's steel market conditions. <>Steel market conditions are under a gradual recovery in the USA and Europe after a lapse of one year since the debacle of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and its aftereffects on the world's economic situations. Meanwhile, there is a continued expansion of steel demand in the world's emerging economies including China, a factor in a steady international market for commodities. <>In Japan, there are rising expectations of the new government in a dramatic shift of power. On its part, Tokyo Steel is contemplating responding with prudent production while making sure of actual demand for steel products. The company estimates its September production levels at 60,000 tons for H-beams, 50,000 tons for HR coils, and 20,000 tons for heavy plates. Also, the company expects its steel operations to continue at around 50% of what was executed in the summer of last year. <>Tokyo Steel faces inadequate arrivals of locally available ferrous scrap at its works. Behind a strong domestic market for local ferrous scrap lies speculation that major integrated steelmakers may take local ferrous scrap for steel operations at their works, presumably to meet blast furnace malfunctions. |
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| last modified : Fri 18 Sep, 2009 [10:54] |
