It is reported that China ministry of commerce said that the consumption amount of construction steel market rebounded strongly due to the seasonal boom in demand. Steelmakers lifted the ex mill price and domestic steel prices started to stabilize or register a slight upward trend.
Last week, from April 4th to April 10th period, domestic steel prices increased by 0.6% from the previous week of which hot rolled strip steel with diameter 145*2.5mm, welded steel pipe with diameter 20*1.2, rebar with diameter Φ12mm hiked by 1.0%, 1.0% and 0.9% respectively.
The steelmaking cost edged up as iron ore prices rose. On April 8th, the Indian fine ores were offered at CNY 1330 to CNY 1340 per tonne at Tianjin Port up 1.5 from the previous week. Most projects started at full construction and the terminal demand had been progressively released, which led to a drop of inventory.
The data showed that domestic construction steel inventory slipped by 2.3% from the previous week, down 10.9% compared with the same period of previous month. It is expected that the stability or correction in domestic steel prices will be relatively short-lived, with a slow increase in prices.
( Source: www.steelguru.com )