According to a statement from China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) on March 31, with steel enterprises speeding up production, the market is well supplied, and domestic steel prices accordingly fell by 0.4 percent in the week of March 21-27, as compared to the previous week.
Construction steel suffered the highest decrease rate: 12 mm rebar and 6.5 mm high-speed wire rod prices decreased by 0.6 percent and 0.5 percent respectively on week-on-week basis. In the meantime, coking enterprises in the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei lowered their coke prices. Overall, the domestic price of metallurgical coke in China dropped by 0.7 percent week-on-week in the week in question.
Meanwhile, it is expected that the improved weather conditions will result in increased construction activity, and this is expected to lead to a stabilization in domestic steel prices in the near future, the MOC stated.