Japan steel mills flag price hikes with coal at 4-year high

Tokyo

JAPANESE steelmakers plan to increase prices to cover rising input costs as traders forecast a near-doubling in coking coal contract prices next quarter to a four-year high.

Coking coal has soared after China cut output and raised steel production, posing a new threat to Japanese mills already competing against excess Chinese supply. Benchmark hard coking coal contracts may be settled at US$180 a tonne in the December quarter, up 95 per cent from US$92.50 a tonne for the current three months, according to a survey of traders compiled by Macquarie Group Ltd.