Wait-and-see mood prevails in Chinese domestic semi-finished steel market

As of August 22, Chinese domestic semi-finished steel prices have increased on week-on-week basis, while transaction activity in the market has been at low-to-medium levels. Average prices of steel billet and slab in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.

Domestic semi-finished steel prices rose rapidly in the middle of the past week, causing a slowdown in transaction activity. Later in the week, semi-finished steel prices edged down a little, while average market prices are still higher compared to one week ago. Currently, no significant improvement has been observed in demand from downstream users, while some supply shortages have been seen due to environmental protection measures. A wait-and-see mood prevails in the market given the recent fluctuations in ferrous metal futures prices in China. It is thought that semi-finished steel prices in the Chinese domestic market will move sideways in the coming week.

All prices are ex-warehouse and on actual weight basis and include 17 percent VAT.
 
$1 = RMB 6.66