Kyodo

Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. have agreed on a price hike for sheet metal in the April-September period of about ¥10,000 per ton, sources said Tuesday.

The markup of roughly 10 percent from the preceding six-month period is the first for Toyota since the April-September period of 2011 before the giant steel maker came into existence via the 2012 merger between Nippon Steel Corp. and Sumitomo Metal Industries Ltd.

Toyota is not expected to pass the hike on in the retail prices of its cars, absorbing it instead with a range of cost-cutting efforts, according to the sources.