Steady demand in China to keep supporting prices

摘要

In July, the pace of CIS pig iron price growth slowed down to 1-3%. Steadily strong demand in China keeps lending support to suppliers, while consumer activity in the other regional markets remains sporadic. Traditional markets for CIS pig iron are recovering extremely slowly as finished steel producers are in no hurry to bring production rates to pre-pandemic levels amid steadily weak consuming sectors. In the US, despite a six-week rise in crude steel production, capacity utilization remains below 60%, with the dynamics being quite different in the regions.