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Japan’s Nippon Steel has decided to hold domestic prices of its H-beams for retail sales this month (for rolling in May) unchanged from last month, even though the cost situation of domestic steelmakers has not changed, it was announced on 24 April. This means Japan’s largest steelmaker has held its H-beam prices unchanged since raising them for January sales (February roll) by Yen 5,000/tonne ($32.5/t), as Mysteel Global reported.
“The recovery in domestic steel demand has been sluggish,” Nippon Steel said in a statement. “In terms of domestic demand for construction, the volume of steel beams converted to steel frames in February — based on statistics for construction starts — decreased slightly from the same month the previous year to approximately 300,000 tonnes (t),” Nippon Steel said.
On a cumulative basis from last April to February this year, the volume of steel used in frames was about 3.6 million tonnes (mnt), the steelmaker noted, down 11% from the same period of the previous year.
As a pointer to soft demand, H-beam stocks held by Nippon Steel’s Tokiwakai grouping of domestic H-beam dealers nationwide totalled 219,500 tonnes (t) at the end of March, higher by 3,500 t or 1.6% from end-February and higher by 11% from the end-March 2023 level.
The latest Japan Iron and Steel Federation data showed that during February, Japanese mills received orders for just 235,000 t of H-beams, lower by 6.5% from January and by 4.4% from February last year.
Nippon Steel never reveals its prices but deals for SS400 grade 5.5/8 x 200x100mm H-beams in Tokyo are currently being negotiated at Yen 122,000-123,000/t, higher by Yen 2,000/t on month.
Meanwhile, Himeji-based heavy sections maker, Yamato Kogyo has announced that it is holding its prices for May contracts to allow its earlier increase of Yen 3,000/t tabled in March to penetrate the market.
