Local Chinese semi-finished steel prices continue to increase

As of April 24, Chinese domestic billet prices have continued to increase week on week, while transaction activity in the market has been at medium levels. Average prices of steel billet and slab in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table. 

Ferrous metal futures prices in China moved up in the first part of the given week, providing support for the upward trend of semi-finished steel prices, though futures prices edged down in the latter part of the week, negatively affecting sentiment in the semi-finished steel market to some degree. Meanwhile, semi-finished steel production capacity utilization rates have risen in the given week and downstream users’ consumption of semi-finished steel has continued to increase. It is thought that semi-finished steel in the Chinese domestic market will move up in the coming week.

All prices are ex-warehouse and on actual weight basis and include 17 percent VAT.
 
$1 = RMB 6.31