Saturday, October 30,
Steel prices on the Chinese market remained unchanged for the second consecutive week, with transactions still relatively low as traders anticipate possible policy changes in the remaining months of the year.
Construction steel on the Shanghai market remained at 4,170 yuan ($624.2) per tonne on Thursday, with end-user demand still weak and traders wondering if China might impose more restrictions on the sector before the year is out.
“The market is just slow right now because of the uncertainties there have been so many different policies this year and who knows what the government will announce in the next few weeks?” said a manager at a steel trading company in Beijing.
“Any new policy to cut electricity use could cause a bit of panic and send some prices rising,” she said.
According to China’s National Business Daily, mills in Hebei are facing more restrictions on electricity use in the last week of October as the province strives to meet its October consumption target.
While another round of enforced capacity closures could help prop up prices, no one expects any sharp increases as the winter approaches and construction activities come to a halt, especially in northern China.
But the problems could be more than seasonal, a senior analyst with a foreign investment bank said.
Source: Reuters
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