Russian steel market expects price rise

Russian steel prices are expected to rise in the domestic market. Russian steelmakers are forced to raise prices of their products which after winter decrease became much cheaper in the domestic market than in the world market. Majority of Russian mills are planning to raise domestic prices for their products by 10-15 percent. The main reason for such increase is the current situation in the world market and its impact on the Russian domestic market. The price for steel products raised in average by $150 per ton since the beginning of the year in the world market, while the Russian domestic market has seen constant downward trend since the second quarter of the last year. As a result, Russian steelmakers try to direct as much volumes as possible to export to raise sales revenues. Consequently, the volumes directed to the domestic market continue to decrease. As one of the steelmakers commented that if Russian mills would not adjust the domestic prices in the near future, the producers would provoke a scarcity in the domestic market which would lead to sharp price rise. The possible time of price correction is named as July since by this time the quarterly agreement on supply of steel products of major producers would expire.