Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co Ltd, Japan’s top electric-arc furnace steelmaker, said on Tuesday it will raise prices of pickled and oiled sheets by 2.4% in September while keeping other product prices unchanged.

The company raised prices by up to 4.7% for some of its steel products including its main H-shaped beams in August to reflect a tight market situation.

Prices for pickled and oiled sheets — hot rolled steel is pickled in acid to remove the mill scale and then oiled to keep it from rusting — will increase by 3,000 yen ($27) a tonne to 12,6000 yen ($1,153) a tonne next month.

“Inventories of sheet products remain low, with shortages seen in some products,” Tokyo Steel said in a statement.

“We anticipate increased production activity in the automobile, industrial machinery, shipbuilding and other manufacturing industries in October-March period, and we expect the market will stay tight,” it said.

Tokyo Steel’s pricing is closely watched by Asian rivals such as South Korea’s Posco 005490.KS and Hyundai Steel 004020.KS, and China’s Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd (Baosteel).
Source: Reuters (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)

 

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Tokyo Steel to raise prices for pickled and oiled sheets in September