In the given week, steel plate offers in China varied significantly. On the one hand, steel prices in the domestic futures market showed a strong downtrend, and this had a negative impact on the mood of plate traders. Moreover, end-users have been slow to return to the market and so activity has been slack. Accordingly, plate offers in many Chinese cities have trended down amid soft demand. On the other hand, domestic plate mills have in succession increased their ex-works prices, and some traders have raised their prices in line with these increases. As a result, steel plate market prices have moved up slightly.
Meanwhile, on February 18 the Chinese central bank stated that it will lower the deposit reserve ratio for domestic financial institution by 0.5 percentage points as of February 24, which may help to increase liquidity in the steel market in the coming period and so provide support for steel prices.
Considering the limited demand, it is expected that the Chinese steel plate market will be characterized by fluctuations in the coming week.