Japan’s biggest steel-maker — grappling with rising raw-material costs, a falling yen and waning demand — has warned the nation’s manufacturing giants face more price hikes this year.
Nippon Steel is securing increases on contract prices through negotiations with domestic customers in the second half of the fiscal year through March, Executive Vice President Takahiro Mori said in an interview. The company will pass on the surge in costs, including for iron ore and coking coal, which have been exacerbated by a historic decline in the yen.
The rise in raw material costs has been "quite different” from Nippon Steel’s assumptions made earlier this year, Mori said. The portion of the extra costs, which were shouldered by the company in the first six months of the fiscal year, "will be reflected in product prices from October,” he said.