Baosteel's price hike for Feb. stabilizes color coated coil market

SteelOrbis Shanghai Facing low trade volume and market inventory levels, overall color coated coil prices remained stable in China, seeing just a slight decrease. Any tendency towards a greater price drop was forestalled by Baosteel's announcement of an increase in its color coated coil ex-factory prices for February 2007. On December 29, the average market price of both 0.476 mm and 0.4 mm color coated coils decreased RMB 17/mt ($ 2/mt) compared with last week to RMB 6,670/mt ($ 855/mt) and RMB 7,100/mt ($ 910/mt) respectively. Meanwhile, the average market price of 0.286 mm color coated coils imported from Taiwanese mill Yieh Phui was unchanged at RMB 8,000/mt ($ 1,026/mt). This week, the market price of color coated coil retained its steadiness on the whole, though in some markets a slight decline was seen. Customer demand and market trading volume levels did not undergo any change. Market inventories also remained at a low level. Also this week, Baosteel's February 2007 ex-factory prices for color coated coil were announced with an increase of RMB 100-200/mt ($ 13-26/mt) seen compared with January prices. This had the effect of making traders unwilling to reduce their prices. Nevertheless, the market price of ex-Baosteel color coated coils began to increase a little, while the market prices of the other mills for color coated coil also began to move towards stability. The supply and demand for color coated coil in the domestic market remained balanced overall. The market price of color coated coil in the future is expected to continue its steady trend.