Market Summary

摘要

The signs of price recovery that became apparent in CIS flat product markets in late July spread to China during August. Chinese HR coil prices have been particularly buoyant and mills have been able to raise their prices to pre-May levels - reversing the effect of a series of declines that occurred at the start of the third quarter. Market fundamentals suggest that further modest price rises may be possible in coming weeks. Demand in domestic markets is firm and raw material costs, are so high that mills' margins cannot concede significant reductions in price. On the export front, buyer activity in Europe is set to increase over the next two months and there are signs too that US buyers will start to return to international markets in greater numbers than they have to date in 2007. This should also benefit CIS and Indian product prices stalled this month.