Early last week, buyers' increased confidence on the back of significant price increases in the futures market, coupled with uptrend maintained in iron ore and slab prices have all contributed in Chinese mills' ex-works steel plate price increase, with the pressure resulting from increased production costs. Traders have risen their own steel plate offers after producers' price increase. However, demand has failed to keep the pace. So towards the end of last week, some traders have started to adopt a wait-and-see stance, losing their optimism, while some traders have started to offer discounts for real buyers. At the weekend, average steel plate prices in Chinese domestic market have declined slightly following decreases of slab prices in Tangshan local market.
It is thought that the Chinese steel plate market may move sideways trend or witness further softening in the week, approaching to the National Day Holiday (October 1-7).