SteelOrbis Shanghai After the seven days long holiday, Chinese
plate prices; especially low alloy
plate prices went up considerably. Upon opening after the holiday, each leading market saw sharp increases in prices. The prices of common carbon plates increased around RMB 120/mt ($15) while that of low alloy plates increased around RMB 230/mt ($29) since the end of holiday. Sources reported the shortage in supply as the major reason of the price hike. In the previous years, the inventory would go up dramatically after the holiday, however this year, the market inventory has not increased by a large quantity. On the contrary, some cities even saw a tight availability, which made market prices firm. For example in Shanghai, there is a shortage of products except those produced by Yingkou Steel. It is learnt that Xinyu Steel is not planning to produce large quantities of common carbon medium plates, instead, it will produce specialty
plate. Besides, its product deliveries to Shanghai and Guangzhou are in small quantities. In Tianjin, the availability was already tight before the holidays, and the recent products sent by the steel mills are for the transactions which were already concluded before the holiday. In Lecong, leading mills such as Liuzhou Steel and Shaoguan Steel are producing more hot rolled products instead of medium
plate. In addition, the sales figures during several days after the holiday have been favorable in general. Traders stated that the demand from the end users picked up. The active business activity has driven up the prices as well. Traders' costs are continuing to increase further due to higher ex-factory prices. One of the main characteristics of the market after the holiday is; the favorable business activity for low alloy plates, with larger increases in prices than that of common carbon
plate. It has been learnt that most end-users are purchasing low alloy products, while the supply of these products is tight. The market prices of medium
plate are expected to retain the upward trend, but the increase range will not be large in the short term. The prices may also go down in the following weeks.