Baosteel, a major steel mill in China, increased its hot-rolled coil price by RMB 350/ton for February. Due to the coming Chinese New Year holidays, the company will announce its new price for March in advance today or this week.
According to understanding, China's steel demand went down these days and steel futures prices didn't increase further. The list price already increased in a row for the past three months and the total rise of hot-rolled coils was in a total of US$130/ton and that of cold-rolled coils was in a total of US$154/ton.
As the production cost and international steel prices still remained high level, it was expected that Baosteel will continue to increase the price. The increase will not be as big as the previous adjustment.
After Baosteel announced its March price, Vietnam's Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS) and Taiwan's China Steel Corp. (CSC) will both follow to announce their new prices immediately. It was estimated that the two steel mills will also adjust prices smaller than before according to the current market situation.