Posted on 22 Dec 2023
Japan's largest rebar producer, Kyoei Steel, will keep its domestic rebar prices steady for sales in January, the Osaka-based mini-mill announced on December 20, making three months in a row that the company has rolled over its prices. Kyoei had lifted its rebar price for October sales by Yen 3,000/tonne ($21/t) citing firm demand and rising costs, as Mysteel Global reported.
For the domestic construction sector, "depending on the region, there is a sense of solid demand, especially for large projects, and the overall movement of steel cargoes has not fallen significantly," Kyoei's senior executive officer Shu Nishimura said in a statement. "In the future, demand is expected to remain resilient," he commented.
Kyoei's announcement follows that of Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, the country's largest independent mini-mill, which declared just days earlier on December 18 that it would roll over the list prices of all its steel items for January sales, despite signs that domestic market fundamentals for both flat and long products are improving, as reported.
Kyoei never reveals its list prices but Tokyo Steel's price for base-size D13-25mm rebars is Yen 98,000/t, as reported.
In the Japanese market this week, deals involving SD295A 16-25mm rebars in Osaka, Kyoei's home market, are still being negotiated at Yen 101,000-Yen 102,000/tonne, sources say, while those in Tokyo for rebars of the same spec are at Yen 115,000-Yen 117,000/t.
Preliminary data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation on December 21 put Japan's production of small bars (consisting mostly of rebars) at 631,100 tonnes in November, down 0.9% from October and 5.3% from the same month a year ago. Consequently, small bar production during January-November reached 6.77 million tonnes, lower by 4.6% from the first eleven months of last year.
Source:Mysteel Global
