Kyoei Steel's Yamaguchi Works raises rebar prices

Less than two weeks after declaring that it was keeping its domestic rebar prices unchanged at all its works for September, Kyoei Steel, Japan's largest rebar producer, has suddenly announced that it is raising prices of bars made at its Yamaguchi plant in western Japan by Yen 5,000/tonne ($34/t).

"Electric furnace (steel) manufacturers are facing an increase in the fixed cost burden (and) the situation is getting tougher day by day," Osaka-based Kyoei said in a statement issued on September 2. "We have been working to reduce costs to respond to the current situation, but it is difficult