Tokyo Steel announces first price cut in more than four months

By Anil Mathews (ScrapMonster Author)

February 22, 2016 02:43:14 AM

TOKYO (Scrap Monster): The Japanese steel giant Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co. Ltd. has announced its first price cut in more than four months. This is the first time the company has decided to cut H-beam and HRC prices since October last year. The company cited weak steel market and rising yen strength as the key reasons behind the price-cut decision.

The March contract prices for H-beams witnessed a drop of ¥ 3,000/ton to ¥ 67,000/ton. Similarly, hot rolled coil prices too declined by ¥ 3,000/ton to ¥ 50,000/ton.

According to Kiyoshi Imamura, Managing Director, Tokyo Steel, the price decline is mainly on account of weak market conditions. The recent gain in Japanese currency has also led to the price-cut. However, the company doesn’t expect prices to decline further, Imamura added.

The rising strength in Japanese Yen has made imports cheaper and exports costly. The Yen’s gain may boost cheaper imports into the country. The strength in domestic currency has prevented the domestic mills in the country to take full advantage of the rise in dollar-based prices by overseas mills, thereby pressurizing domestic prices further.