Japan’s carbon steel sheet prices may rise on lower stocks

Japan’s dealer prices of hot-rolled and cold-rolled sheets across Japan have shown signs of bottoming out since the end of August with their stocks have returned to a reasonable level, encouraging distributors to raise their offering prices, according to sources in Tokyo and Osaka.

On the domestic steel mills’ cutting their production, Japan’s flat product stocks have been thinning since July after having perched high since last year as a result of the China-US trade disputes and the COVID-19, Mysteel Global noted. By the end of July, stocks of carbon steel hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and coated coils and sheets at