Toyota transfers lower steel prices to vendors again

Toyota Motor Group, Japan's largest automaker, has decided to lower the prices of the flat steel it sells to affiliated component makers covered by its centralized purchasing scheme for the first half of Japan's new fiscal year beginning April, Japanese business daily the Nikkei has reported. The cut of about Yen 15,000/tonne ($101/t) follows an agreement reached earlier between the automotive giant and Nippon Steel, the daily reported.

The reduction follows the same-sized cut of Yen 15,000/t that Toyota announced last August for the current October-March half, Mysteel Global notes. Prior to that, Toyota had held prices to its vendors unchanged since the carmaker had hiked them by a large Yen 40,000/t for the October-March half of