During the week ended August 20, Chinese steel plate market has continued to trend down slightly. Average prices of medium plates and shipbuilding plates in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Recently, major steelmakers in China such as Baosteel, Anshan Steel and Shougang have announced a decrease of RMB 100-250/mt ($15-39/mt) in its hot rolled plate prices for delivery in September, indicating that the steelmakers do not have a positive outlook for the future market.
At present, demand from downstream industries is slack, with no improvement in market activities. At the same time, traders are also pessimistic about the market, keeping their orders volumes at minimum.
For the future market, prices of steel plate products are expected to decrease continuously due to the anticipated decline in raw material prices.