Steel prices in developing markets suffer contagion from industrialised nations, says MEPS

摘要

There is still downward pressure on US transaction prices, although the rate of decrease has decelerated. Mill outages continue, with operating levels quoted at between 40 and 50 percent, depending on the facility. Deliveries are running late because of the production constraints. Nevertheless, distributors are keeping inventories at the lowest levels in many years as they react to the sharp decline in end-user steel demand caused by the economic recession. Over the years, the EU stainless steelmakers have gained from the linkage of the LME nickel price and the alloy surcharge mechanism. For a large part of this decade the nickel figure was rising. This was partly the result of growing demand for stainless steel but in the twelve months leading up to the crash in May 2007, speculators were said to be involved in the jump in values.