EU flat product steel price rises are not a certainty

摘要

In times of weakening steel prices, producers sometimes announce plans to raise their selling values simply with the aim of stabilising the market, and with only faint hopes of actually reversing the downward trend. Certainly, they do not always achieve the full published price increase from day one. The first to move in the latest round of attempted strip product price hikes was US Steel Europe. It announced a ?40 per tonne price increase on coated and uncoated products from its Slovakian and Serbian works to come into effect on August 16 - a day when we suspect more of its customers were on the beach than in the office. Nevertheless, the company is backing up its price rise effort with further production cuts at its Kosice works.