Strong sheet is hard to drive the overall recovery of the steel market

Since November of this year, the steel plate market, such as hot rolled coils, which has been relatively weak, has been unexpectedly strengthened and continues to this day. According to the monitoring of China's steel spot network, the plate market as a whole has strengthened since November and closed on December 12th. 5.5mm carbon hot rolled 3884 yuan, up 1 yuan; 1.0mm cold plate average price 4606 yuan, up 8 yuan; 20mm plate average price 3720 yuan, up 2 yuan.

While steel prices in the spot market continued to rise, on December 11th, there were significant differences in the price adjustment policies of major steel mills. Baosteel, which used plate materials such as automotive steel as the leading product, was the first to introduce a steel price policy in January 2013, which showed a steady increase and slight upward adjustment. The operation ranged from 50 to 150 yuan, but it was somewhat unexpected to maintain a flat plate for major steel grades such as automotive steel.

Shagang, which is dominated by construction steel, chose to give back the market when it issued its construction steel price policy in mid-December. In addition to the rebar, the total volume of the spiral screw and the high line was reduced by 50 yuan, and the rebar was compensated by 50 yuan. The sand steel products that made the original upside down more serious were temporarily withdrawn from the hanging upside down pattern and their businesses were more relaxed.

The price adjustment policies of the two major steel mills go against each other and can basically represent most of the direction of long products and sheet metal manufacturers. It is expected that subsequent Wuhan Iron and Steel and Anshan Iron & Steel will also follow Baosteel's price adjustment policy with a slight upward trend.

Although the hot-rolled sheet metal market showed signs of unusual signs of recovery in the winter of this year, the analysis indicated that due to the time being in the traditional seasonal off-season, especially the demand for long products was affected by the release of most of the outdoor construction suspension; the proportion of steel products was relatively weak. The plate market is strong and it is difficult to drive the steel market to pick up in the cold winter as a whole.

Demand for the construction steel market is unlikely to perform well this winter, unless steel stockpiles can have larger outbreaks in the future. Otherwise, under the influence of suspended construction in the north and rain in the south, wire rods, rebars, etc. The consumption of construction steel products may only decrease further in the later period, and there is no continuous driving force for the pull-up of steel grades.