[ferro-alloys.com]Tokyo — Japan's major electric arc furnace mill Tokyo Steel Manufacturing announced Monday that it will cut its finished product prices for July contract by Yen 3,000-5,000/mt ($28-$46/mt), which is the first time the mill has reduced its prices since October 2016.

The company said the price cut is to adjust its list prices such that they are in line with actual market prices.

Its list price for SS400 senior-sized H-beams will be cut by Yen 4,000/mt to Yen 85,000/mt ($783/mt), while the price for SPHC 1.7-22mm hot-rolled coil will be cut by Yen 5,000/mt to Yen 69,000/mt.

"Demand for steel products [from] overseas and domestic [markets] are basically firm, but customers are monitoring the movement because the impact from the US-China trade dispute on the steel market is unclear. This movement is leading the fall in overall steel product prices," Tokyo Steel's managing director Kiyoshi Imamura said.

He also said overseas suppliers are increasing their export offers to Japan because their currencies are weakening. "More lower priced offers by overseas suppliers are also weakening prices in Japan, so we decided to cut our prices and try to stop customers from booking imported materials," the director said.

A Tokyo-based distributor said if prices by domestic mills decline, there will be lesser advantage of buying imported material and Japanese customers prefer to secure domestic material because the delivery time is shorter.

Tokyo Steel plans to produce 225,000 mt of finished steel in June, down 10,000 mt from May. June production plan includes 100,000 mt of H-beams and 95,000 mt of HRC, both unchanged from May. And 10,000 mt of plates, down from 20,000 mt in May.

Bids from oversea customers are currently around $650-$670/mt FOB for H-beams and $540-$560/mt FOB for HRC, both down $20/mt from a month ago, the director said.

The company plans to produce around 30,000 mt of HRC for export in June, unchanged from May.

(S&P Global Platts)

• [Editor:王可]