24 Hours Hotline : +86 131 0325 0627
China's state-controlled Baowu group has kept most prices of its hot-rolled coil (HRC) and cold-rolled products unchanged for February compared with a month earlier but raised them by 50 yuan/t ($7.28/t) for March.
China's purchasing managers index (PMI) for the steel sector in December rose by 0.4 points from the previous month to 45.6, indicating a slower pace of sectoral contraction than the sharp slowdown in November.
The anticipated slip in Chinese steel demand next year will likely cause total demand across Asia to fall by 0.5% from this year’s total to 1.15 billion tonnes, according to a new forecast from the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.
China's steel and iron ore prices have started to climb in response to winter production curbs, but recent gains are far from suggestive of a rosy outlook for the sector.
China’s crude steel output slumped to a seven month low in November thanks to falling profit-margins at mills and winter pollution controls on emissions in the major northern steel-producing cities and regions.
Shanghai steel prices rose for a third day in a row on Friday after China’s major steelmaking cities of Tangshan and Xuzhou asked mills to curtail output, amid concerns they will not meet their pollution reduction targets this year.
China’s self-styled war on pollution is extending to a new front: the solid waste that makes up thousands of slag heaps around the country, a byproduct of its record steel output.
The threat of cheap steel imports flooding the market has come to haunt steel producers, following the sharp fall in prices in China in November, on the back of rising steel output amidst weak demand.
In a breakthrough, the United States and China reached a 90-day ceasefire in the trade dispute that has rattled financial markets and threatened world economic growth.
Bulk commodities, which have outperformed industrial metals for the past six months, are coming under pressure as weakening steel prices hammer the profitability of China’s vast steel industry.
Focus on precision parts manufacturers
