Independent steel rolling mills in the the Fengrun district of Tangshan in China are required to halt production in the second half of August, according to the district’s air pollution control plan released at the beginning of August. Most of the mills, which use billets as raw material to make finished steel products, mentioned that they have halted production as of August 16 and will be able to resume operations only starting from August 31.
Because of the production halt at the rolling mills, their purchasing activities for billets have slowed down. Average billet prices in China have lost RMB 25/mt ($3.5/mt) since yesterday, August 15, falling to RMB 3,510/mt ($499/mt) ex-warehouse.