Note from Hebei

摘要

Platts' Metals analysts visited Qian'an City in Hebei Province in late March and spoke to mills about their operations at the end of the winter heating season and expectations for Q2. Compared with a previous visit in October last year when there was relatively little air pollution, this time the sky was grey and hazy. In view of relatively low steel margins, and the high price of raw materials, steel mills said they were keeping their burden mixes largely unchanged and would adopt a prudent attitude in line with market conditions. The first day we arrived at Qian'an, the sky was grey and air quality was not good. "From the weekend the air quality started to get worse, but before that the sky was blue," one mill manager commented. Mill officials said the production curbs in the winter season may extend to the end of March with more enhanced measures, thought the exact cut percentage remains to be seen. Mills generally expected the cut would be stricter in Q2.