September 2012 | Steel Tracker
Prices fail to improve: International Flat Product Market Analysis
The MBR Flat Product Price Index has fallen to a fresh year-to-date low of 97.44 down 14% year-on-year.
Any price gains this week throughout the steel industry were largely due to currency movements as we saw the euro strengthen against the US dollar. Other than that, the week was largely flat as the market continues to be plagued by uncertainty and inactivity.
The main price movement was seen once again in China as mills reduce prices further for HRC as domestic material moves lower to $498/tonne, a fall of 4.8% week-on-week representing an 11% fall month-on-month. The price falls have come as a result of poor demand from European importers as well as a reluctance of Chinese mills to reduce production levels for fear of increasing the chances of unemployment, a policy that the Chinese government take very seriously and given the government subsidies to the steel sector it affords the mills the ability to run at a loss with some of those...
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