During the SteelOrbis Spring 08 Conference & 58th IREPAS Meeting being held in Istanbul, several market players have expressed the opinion that China might be back in the steel export game sooner than anyone expects.
As prices for raw materials and energy resources soar worldwide, thereby affecting the cost of finished steel products, traders in the Middle East and Gulf region are thinking about resuming steel purchases from China, a source from which exports have been paralyzed since the introduction of export restrictions.
Even the rumor that the Chinese government may introduce tougher restrictions on exports - a rumor which has been doing the rounds in the market for a couple of weeks now - is not discouraging traders from positive thinking on the issue of resuming exports from China. On the contrary, many think that China will not limit exports further, but will instead find a way of expanding the presence of Chinese exports in the international market, as one trader told SteelOrbis.
Furthermore, several market players believe that Chinese exports to the Gulf and Middle East constitute the missing piece required for market stabilization. The lack of ‘cheap' steel exports from China is seen as one of the reasons which have caused the market to skyrocket.
Yet, no one can tell in which direction the market will develop and whether the resumption of Chinese exports to the Middle East and the Gulf would in fact lead to market stabilization. Furthermore, even the question of the resumption of Chinese exports to the Middle East is still a question to which nobody is ready to give a definite answer.