Posted on 19 Feb 2025
The absence of any noticeable improvement in steel market conditions over the past month has led Japan's largest independent mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, to roll over all its product prices for March contracts, the company announced on Monday. Tokyo Steel has now kept its list prices unchanged for five consecutive months, Mysteel Global notes.
"In the domestic market, there has been no significant change in the trend of construction demand, and even after the beginning of February, the trade in construction steel products has remained in stalemate nationwide and the steel market stagnant," the company said in a price-policy statement. Regarding flat rolled products, "the export environment of various industries has been sluggish due to global economic adjustment (while) domestic demand has also lacked momentum and business sentiment for steel products has not yet recovered," it acknowledged.
"As new business deals are being slow to emerge, we have kept the prices unchanged in order to continue to closely monitor both the internal and external situations," Tokyo Steel managing director Yuji Komatsuzaki said. "Steel prices have begun to rebound in some countries, but as demand for steel in China has been stagnant since the Spring Festival, the whole Asian steel market is still in a downward trend," he told Japanese media.
Holding its prices means that Tokyo Steel's price for its large 350x350 mm H-beams is still at Yen 120,000/tonne ($794/t), that for its 9-40mm thick heavy plates holds at Yen 103,000/t, its price for 1.7-22mm hot-rolled coil stays at Yen 92,000/t, and it continues to list D13-25mm rebars at Yen 88,000/t, according to its March policy statement.
For sales abroad, the company's export price is still at $560-570/t FOB for hot coils and $700-720/t FOB for its H-beams.
Market conditions in Japan indeed remain dull. On the same day that Tokyo Steel announced its March price roll-over, the Japan Iron & Steel Federation released data showing that domestic orders for ordinary steel products last December had decreased by 6% on-year to 2.85 million tonnes, the seventh consecutive monthly fall.
Due to the impact of labour shortages, steel orders for both construction and civil engineering decreased, while the level of activity for manufacturing has remained low, it said. The cumulative order volume across all sectors for April-December – the first nine months of the current fiscal year – was 5.8% lower on year at 24.83 million tonnes.
During the nine months, total ordinary steel orders for construction were 6.7% lower at 6.16 million tonnes, and those for automotive manufacturing were 8.6% lower at 5.1 million tonnes, the JISF statistics show.
Tokyo Steel's March 2025 finished steel list prices (incomplete)
Product | Yen/tonne | $/t (equivalent) |
Galvanized coil (SGC400, 0.6-0.7mm) | 128,000 | 848 |
Pickled cut sheet (SPHC, 1.6mm 914x1,829mm) | 109,000 | 722 |
U-sheet pile (SY295) | 127,000 | 841 |
Square pipe (TSC295, 150x150mm, 6mm thick) | 118,000 | 781 |
Pickled coil (SPHC, 1.7-6mm) | 100,000 | 662 |
Hot cut sheet (SPHC, 1.6mm,914x1,829mm) | 99,000 | 656 |
I-beam (SS400, 150x125mm) | 120,000 | 795 |
Plate (SS400, 9-40mm) | 103,000 | 682 |
H-beam (SS400, 100x200mm) | 115,000 | 762 |
HRC (SPHC, 1.7-22mm) | 92,000 | 609 |
Channel (SS400, 100x50mm) | 111,000 | 735 |
Rebar (SD295A, 13-25mm dia) | 88,000 | 583 |
Source: Tokyo Steel Manufacturing
Source:Mysteel Global
