Posted on 16 Jul 2025
Japan's largest independent mini-mill, Tokyo Steel Manufacturing, is rolling over the list prices of all its products for sales in August, the company announced on Monday, saying it was keeping its prices unchanged in order to quickly bottom out the market. The company has now held its prices for three straight months, Mysteel Global notes.
As a result, Tokyo Steel's price for 1.7-22mm SPHC-grade hot rolled coils is still at Yen 89,000/tonne ($605/t), that for 9-40 mm thick plates stays at Yen 100,000/t, its SGCC 0.9-1.6mm hot-dipped galvanized coils remain at Yen 121,000/t, and base-size D13-D25 rebars are still listed at Yen 85,000/t.
"In the domestic market, cargo movement of steel materials has remained low – even after the end of the rainy season – due to a decline in construction capacity from the extreme heat," the company said in a statement. It expected an increase in shipments toward the beginning of autumn, which in Japan is October.
"With regard to steel sheet products, business sentiment as a whole has come to a standstill due to the restructuring of production bases and supply chains, and the trend of strengthening domestic bases has been postponed in some areas," the company said. "Steel users are focused on the future trend in domestic and international demand, especially in export-oriented industries, while attention is focused on the future of (Japan's) tariff negotiations with the United States," it observed.
Prices are indeed soft, especially those of construction steel. Industry sources say that dealers in the Tokyo area as of last Friday were offering base size (18-25 mm diameter) rebars at Yen 106,000-108,000/t for direct delivery, some Yen 2,000/t lower than at the end of June.
Statistics announced early last week by mini-mill association the Japan Non-integrated Steel Producers' Association showed that shipments of small steel bars to the domestic market for use as rebars during May totalled 499,000 tonnes, down 7.2% from the same month a year ago and making for the 12th consecutive monthly on-year decline.
In June, according to industry daily Tekko Shimbun, trading companies and distributors in the Kanto region around Tokyo – Japan's largest rebar market – sought only 143,474 tonnes of products from rebar manufacturers, lower by a huge 16.3% from May and declining for the second consecutive month.
"Inventory sales are centered on small-lot transactions, and there is no sense of tightness in supply and demand," the daily observed. "There is no good news to stimulate demand, and for the time being, the market will remain weak," it warned. Under these conditions, it's probably not surprising that Tokyo Steel had decided to hold its product prices for sales next month.
"And besides, Tokyo Steel just cut scrap prices last week, even by a small range, so the company couldn't really argue that its costs were rising to justify a rise in product prices," a Tokyo market source pointed out.
On July 9, the mini-mill had announced that it was clipping buying prices for all grades of scrap delivered to its Utsunomiya works in the northern Kanto and to its Tokyo Bay satellite scrap yard from July 10 by Yen 500/t, as reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
