[ferro-alloys.com]Market prices of H-beam in Tokyo, Japan, rose Yen 3,000/mt ($27/mt) latelast week from a week earlier, as higher prices from producers have pusheddistributors to transfer the increase to their sales prices, industry sourcesin Tokyo said Monday.

A Tokyo-based construction steel trader said some H-beam producers havemade additional price hikes for June or July contracts and that has pushed distributors to lift their sales prices.

"Hikes by producers from late last year is larger, distributors will haveto shift that to their sales prices, they will continue taking strong stancesand not accept any lower prices," he said.

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. raised its H-beam prices by Yen3,000/mt for June contracts, bringing the total hike by the company sinceDecember to Yen 11,000/mt.

A distributor in Tokyo said demand of H-beam is expected to stay firm,and inquiries from customers have been active.

"We can select orders with higher prices, so we expect market prices willcontinue increasing further," he said.

Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure Transport and Tourism estimatedsection demand from Japan's construction sector to rise 1% year on year, andby 11.4% from June, to 390,000 mt in July.

• [Editor:王可]