Tokyo Steel raises prices again on raw material costs

23. Feb. 2010

Tokyo Steel Manufacturing Co (5423.T), Japan's biggest maker of construction steel, said it would raise prices on all products for the second straight month in March due to surging raw material costs.

"The cost of raw materials, including steel scrap and alloys, is expected to rise further after the new financial year begins in April," Naoto Ohori, managing director at Tokyo Steel, told a news conference.

"For coking coal and iron ore, prices could rise by much more than initially thought," he continued.

The firm will increase its March contract price of H-shaped steel by 4.5 percent to 69,000 yen per tonne.

It will also soon start exporting H-shaped steel at $750 per tonne and hot coils at $700 per tonne, Ohori added.

The company had stopped exporting products because prices were too low.

He said the current market situation was similar to that of early 2008, when skyrocketing raw material costs led to four to five straight months of price increases at steelmakers.

"That could happen again," he said.
[Reuters]