Baotou holds seminar for section producers

Baotou holds seminar for section producers

Baotou Steel hosted last Friday (September 2) a meeting on large and medium-scale section markets. Prominent Chinese section producers like Wuhan Steel, Ma Steel, Angang, Panzhihua Steel, Laigang, Anshan New Steel Company, Haicheng Dongsi, and Jiangyin Xingcheng Steel, as well as relevant e-business website companies, participated in the meeting held at the Baogang Hotel. The participating companies gave summaries of their first half output, talked about their overhauling plans for the second half, and presented market analyses and proposals for the future of the large and medium-scale section market. The participants came to a consensus that the section market was stable in the first part of the third quarter and that in the second part the domestic market would be stable, possibly showing a slight increase following the upward trend of the international market and booming demand. Major reasons are as follows: 1. There are not many section steelmaking enterprises. Supply in the domestic large section market is unlikely to see notable changes due to the strict control on production capacity. 2. With the exception of slight fluctuations in the southwestern and northwestern regions of China, the section market saw a minor increase following the upward trend in the whole steel market since July. 3. The macro-economic policies are now in a period of observation and are under slight adjustments. Some relevant parties indicate that there will not be any important macro-economic policies released during the remainder of the year. This has laid a solid foundation for the stability of domestic market. The participants indicated that July output of medium, small and large section producers decreased slightly. Export volume decreased 27'000 tons compared with that of June, while import volume increased 7'529 tons. The apparent consumption dropped 283'000 tons. It was estimated that the apparent consumption would further increase following the trend of decline in exports and increase in imports. This will inevitably have a negative impact on the future trend of the section market. Close attention should be given to the above-mentioned factors. SteelOrbis Shanghai Office