Baosteel is the one which takes the initiative to increase price.
After it brought up factory price by 2% to 5.5% in last December, Baosteel has again announced the decision of price rise in January 11, with the price of hot rolled coil being up by CNY 100 per tonne in February. The same price rise is also expected with cold rolled coil, galvanized steel products and thick plates.
Wugang steel reacted extremely quickly by announcing on the January 12 that its hot rolled coil price will be increased by CNY 200 per tonne, and its cold rolled coil price will be increased by CNY 100 per tonne.
Within no more than one week, Angang steel also followed the trend to announce price rise on January 17.
However, this period of time is not supposed to a boom season for China’s steel market. How come steel prices are increasing crazily?
The fundamental reason is agreed by almost all experts to be the dramatic cost increase. Prices of iron ore, crude steel and coal are all rising.
On one hand, the bad weather has stopped coal resources from being transported outside and price is therefore sharply increasing. On the other hand, the price rise trend aroused in international iron ore market has been transferred to domestic market, so iron ore price in China’s domestic steel market is also rising.
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