Tokyo Steel cuts September sheet and rebar prices by $36-58/t

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, Japan's leading electric furnace steelmaker, has decided to lower list prices for coils, plates, square tubes and rebars by 5,000-8,000 yen/t ($36-58/t) for domestic sales in September to bring reported prices closer to actual market prices, the company said on Aug. 22.

Yuji Komatsuzaki, the company's managing director, said flat sheet prices have declined under the influence of lower imported material prices and that Tokyo Steel has lowered them to match current market prices. “We have adjusted our prices to low levels of market prices, so we see this as a fresh start,” he explained. “But manufacturing costs, such as electricity bills and ancillary materials prices, are rising, so this needs to be reflected in our prices,” he told Mysteel Global.

He added that Tokyo Steel supplies rebar mainly to western Japan, where rebar prices are declining, so it has also adjusted its rebar list prices to match market prices in western Japan.

In terms of August output, Tokyo Steel plans to produce 245,000 tons of finished carbon steel, down 10,000 tons from July. The total quantity includes 105,000 tons of HRC (of which 15,000 tons are exported), 110,000 tons of I-beams, 20,000 tons of plate, and 10,000 tons of other products such as rebar and square pipes. The director explained the decline in production due to summer shutdowns.

Komatsuzaki also said that the latest bids his company is receiving from overseas buyers for its 3mm SPHC hot rolled coil are $650-670/tonne FOB, down $80/tonne from last month, and prices for its I-beams are 870-890 US dollars per ton FOC. , $30/t less than a month. “But the rates are too low (so) we are now refusing to receive export orders,” he added.