Prices for coated flats to start growing in late summer

摘要

While demand for coated flats was rather steady, Russian steelmakers did notrevise prices in June. The stability of prices will help force out imports thathave accounted for about a third of apparent consumption in recent months.Despite weak demand from consuming industries, Russian market sees anexcess of coated steel product supply. Typically for the season, many traderskept piling up stocks anticipating a revival of demand in summer. In May,apparent consumption of coated flats amounted to 400,000t, up 14% from theprevious month, domestic products accounting for most of the increase.Meanwhile, heavy stocks slowed down the growth of market capacity insummer and forced producers to keep domestic prices unchanged in June.