It’s reported that Japan’s JFE Steel announced to raise the export prices for hot rolled coils (HRC) further by US$50/ton for next February delivery after the company successfully increased the export prices by US$15~US$20/ton for next January.

At present, Japan’s export prices of SAE1006 HRC with thickness of 2mm to Southeast Asian buyers are at US$590~US$600/ton CFR.

Industry sources said that the Japanese steel mills plan to increase the HRC export prices for next February as they expect that the supply would be tight at that moment due to South Korean steel mills’ annual maintenances in January.