Japan steelmakers' shares fall after reports of surprise price cuts

Tokyo

SHARES of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp and other Japanese steelmakers fell on Thursday after media reports said the country's biggest producer of steel had agreed on price cuts for the six months through September with Toyota Motor.

Nippon Steel, which agrees twice a year to prices with Toyota that are considered a benchmark for both the steel and vehicle industries, had earlier said it wanted to raise prices by 5,000 yen (S$62.20) per tonne for its main customers.

The surprise price cut is expected to weigh on margins for Japanese steelmakers, which have forecast solid profit growth in the business year through March 2018 because of expected product price hikes, especially with the recent surge in steel- making ingredie…