Positive signs for steel indeveloping countries, rising scrap costs lead to higher long product prices, world flat products steel price falls as US market stagnates

摘要

US mills continue to work at around 40/45 percent of production capacity with order intake extremely weak. Flat product transaction prices have dropped further. However, market players believe the figures could be quite close to the bottom now, so long as the steelmakers hold firm. The troubled auto and construction sectors show no sign of improvement. Consequently, service centre business activity continues to be slow and customers fear it might get worse as the summer vacation approaches. Many distributors are selling off inventory at very low resale figures. Currently, there are virtually no foreign offers and import licence applications are still falling.