The price of mainland domestic cold rolled plate market is under the upward trend and this gave Japanese steel mils a way to negotiate a new price for cold rolled plates. Japanese high furnace mills have started the negotiation with Chinese suppliers about the exporting price of cold rolled plate for January, 2007 and so far a quotation of US$600-630/MT FOB has been maintained.
During the past two weeks, the spot transaction price is up around US$25/MT and the excluded duty price is estimated to reach US$510/MT. It is expected that the price will keep increasing around the new year time due to the strong demand of cold rolled plates in Japanese market. However, the increased price of CR plates in China's market provides Japanese mills an advantage in the price negotiation.
(Dec. 18)