Coil export market suffers hiatus before 201

摘要

Concerns about the extent of the trade action to be taken by the USA in March, and threatened retaliation by the EU, have shaken the previously positive mood among European and CIS exporters, which caused hot and cold rolled prices to move up from the beginning of the year.This is partially down to the Chinese Lunar New Year last week-there had been a run on demand for certain steel items in the weeks prior to the regional vacation. "The market has cooled down in the last week or two and I would expect a period of wait-and-see until after the announcement by President Bush on section 201" on March 6, said one European trader. Others agreed with this assessment and said that prices for all products are likely to hold stable, despite moves by all the major EU producers to raise second quarter prices on strip products (see Corus story, this page).