During the week ending February 25, prices in the Chinese domestic cold rolled coil (CRC) market have indicated an overall downward trend, while transaction activity in the market has remained slack. Average CRC prices in the local Chinese market can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
During the given week, most traders have returned to the market after the Spring Festival holiday (Feb. 18-24), though downstream users have not yet fully resumed their production, resulting in slack transaction activity and contributing to the declining trend of CRC offer prices. Traders mention that they have mostly just been renewing communications with their customers after the holiday, rather than concluding actual transactions. Meanwhile, inventory levels of CRC products have risen slightly. It is expected that CRC prices in the Chinese domestic market will follow a slight downtrend in the coming week, while it is thought that demand from downstream industries will recover after the Lantern Festival (March 5) when more downstream users will have fully resumed their operations.