According to report, Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation (NSSMC), Japanese largest integrated steelmaker, announced it would hike prices on the domestic heavy plate by 5,000 yen/ton from August, and it was the second rise since February because NSSMC has increased the price by 5,000 yen/ton.

The price rise was to pass on more costs to customer because it was estimated there would a trend of supply shortage on the plates in the second half of fiscal year 2018 (October to March), NSSMC said.

However, the market participants believed the demand for plates has been steady and would rise further for the second half of 2018.

According to the data from Japan Iron & Steel Federation, Japanese output of heavy plate was around 879,000 tons in June, a year-on-year rise of 18.5% and a month-on-month hike of 7%.