By | 2008-05-27 00:00:00

RusMet reported that although price of steel is going through the roof across the world, mainly because the cost of transporting it and buying the raw materials used to make it have risen dramatically, Russian Antimonopoly Service believes some Russian steel producers could be acting together to further drive up prices. As per report, Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service is wrapping up an investigation into metals producers’ price hikes. Mr Aleksey Ulianov of FAS said that Russia would not sit back if it is found prices have been fixed. He said that “Naturally, if steel prices in Russia are rising faster than costs or if several producers simultaneously raise their prices in similar terms, signaling that there might be a cartel we will take action.” Russian steel producers are following suit in raising prices, putting pressure on industries from construction and shipbuilding to energy exploration and oil companies. But the hike is hitting Russia’s oil companies the hardest. Pipeline costs have gone through the roof. Mr Gennady Krasovsky deputy director of Lukoil said that “Metal component in our cost takes a significant part of the total cost. It can put us into difficult situations if the prices crucially go up.”

By unknow| 2008-05-24 00:00:00

It is reported that Chinese steel prices rally would gain further strength from the possible production halts in provinces surrounding Beijing in addition to spiking raw materials costs in the months ahead. The authority is to implement strict environmental protection policy during the Olympics therefore, steel mills in North China might be required to halt or slash production. Executive from a Hangzhou based steel mill told China Securities News that the company is upbeat about HRC and medium plate price outlook on back of production halt along Beijing-Shenyang Railway during the session of the Games. That would lead to tight supply in the market. Some market analysts told the newspaper that steel output disruption due to Beijing Olympics may be more of an excuse for market speculation since the real impact may not be as severe as expected. About 70 steel mills in Hebei province, China have been ordered to control air and water pollution by June 15th 2008 prior to the start of the Olympic Games in August. Failures to do so could result in closure the mills have been warned.

By unknow| 2008-05-23 00:00:00

It is reported that zinc price of the Shanghai Futures Exchange which plunged from CNY 18,100 per tone to CNY 17,750 per tone last week is predicted to rally in the near future due to the influence of the earthquake hitting Wenchuan, Sichuan on May 12th 2008. According to a report of ATK, nonferrous metal research body in China, after the quake, zinc smelting plants in the area have stopped production and the production of zinc smelting plants with a combined production capacity of 500,000 tones in Sichuan, southern Gansu and southern Shaanxi are also affected. Sichuan Hongda, the largest zinc smelting enterprise in Sichuan confirmed recently that its plant in Mianzu suffered a big loss. Analysts believed that if the transportation in Sichuan can not be improved in the coming two weeks lead zinc smelting plants that have not been affected by the quake will likely be forced to reduce production. At present, lead zinc ore in Sichuan can not be shipped out of the province for the transport reason.

By unknow| 2008-05-23 00:00:00

It is reported that Baoshan Iron & Steel has not released the Q3 EXW price on May 20th 2008 as expected and market analysts told Oriental Morning Post that there is no doubt that the delivery price would increase but the steelmaker may need more time to think twice. As per report Baosteel unveils EXW price on a quarterly basis unlike other steel mills and its price announcement is always considered wane for the steel price trend for following three months. Market insider said "Baoshan would also refer to global steel prices before hammering out its delivery price. Therefore, current strong price rally in global market would ripple into domestic market." As a result, Baoshan's Q3 price hike may be smaller than the previous quarter and the price rise for widely used products such as HR, CR may be less than other varieties. In fact, the steelmaker has been criticized by the authority for partly driving up domestic PPI and CPI higher.

By unknow| 2008-05-22 00:00:00

World crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to the International Iron and Steel Institute was 116.4 million tonnes in April. This is 5.6% higher than the same month last year. Total world crude steel production was 457.3 million tonnes since January to April 2008 up by 5.7% YoY. In the first four months of 2008, China produced 169.8 million tonnes of crude steel an increase of 9.1%YoY as compared to the same period in 2007. In April 2008, China’s moving annual total growth rate slowed further to 11.0% compared to its MAT growth rate of 20.6% in April 2007. China’s crude steel production for April 2008 was 44.7 million tonnes an increase of 10.2%YoY on April 2007. Overall, Asia produced 65.7 million tonnes of crude steel in April 2008 compared to 60.5 million tonnes in April 2007 an 8.7% YoY increase in crude steel production. In North America, the MAT growth rate for April 2008 was 3.4%, continuing its upward trend. US production was an estimated 8.3 million tons an increase of 1.1%YoY from April 2007, Mexico 1.6 million tons up by 10.5% YoY from April 2007 and Canada 1.4 million tons up by 3.7% YoY from April 2007. The ‘Other Europe’ region of seven countries outside the EU produced 2.7 million tonnes in April 2008 an increase of 3.1% YoY from April 2007. Turkey’s crude steel production was 2.3 million tonnes which was 2.7% YoY higher than the same month last year. Turkey produced 8.2%YoY more crude steel in the first four months of 2008 than over the same period last year.

By | 2008-05-20 00:00:00

It is reported that the first batch of cold rolled grain oriented silicon steel sheets and coil were produced at the new line in Baosteel recently, which symbolized that Baosteel had gained the independent innovation ability of producing oriented silicon after ten years of hard research. As per report, the designed annual production capacity of Baosteel is 100,000 tonnes. Producing CRGO is regarded as an art due to difficulties in production, which calls for top grade manufacturing competence and technology and there are only a handful of CRGO makers in the world.

By unknown| 2008-05-20 00:00:00

It is reported that a major quake measuring 7.8 on the Richter scale in Wenchuan County, Sichuan has completely suspended the operations in Pangang Group Chengdu Iron and Steel Company Limited and Pangang Group Sichuan Changcheng Special Company Limited with reports on staff casualty and property damage in these two companies. As per report Pangang Group has called on various subsidiaries, branches and organs to immediately initiate the emergency-response system and join in disaster relief efforts.

By unknown| 2008-05-19 00:00:00

It is reported that Mr Jia Yinsong deputy director general of The Bureau of Economic Operations of National Development and Reform Commission while speaking at the 2008 council meeting of Heibei Metallurgy Industry Association said that China's steel industry is facing 3 tasks namely 1. Energy saving and pollutant reduction 2. Structure adjustment and 3. Swelling production cost this year. Mr Jia said the structure adjustment in Chinese steel industry should be oriented to the development of domestic market as the government is encouraging industrial innovations, quality improvement, competitiveness increase and obsolete capacities elimination. He said that “Energy saving and pollutant reduction is pretty a task in China, since energy shortage, resource hunger and environment protection are three bottlenecks that prohibit the development of China's steel industry. The core for energy saving is to restrict the growth of the total energy consumption and lower unit energy consumption while to reduce the emission of CO2 , SO2 , industrial smokes and dust is the key of pollutant reduction.” He added that “Another major issue for Chinese steel industry is the skyrocketing production cost. Many factors dominate the rising tendency of steel production cost in 2008 including the swelling prices of iron ore, coal, coke, electricity and transportation; more over, tax imposition on mineral resources and wage growth mechanism will also cost enterprises more.

By | 2008-05-15 00:00:00

Sinosteel Xingtai Machinery & Mill Roll Co Ltd and Shougang Corporation have inked a strategic cooperation agreement to promote a deeper and broader cooperation and enhance competitiveness of both companies.   They have cooperated with each other for many years and broadened the scope of their collaboration in recent years. Shougang, as the 10th domestic modern mill to strike a strategic deal with Sinosteel XTMMC, has increased the output ratio of large sheet and strip among various steel products with the relocation project going on.

By Ella| 2008-04-24 00:00:00

Related person in China's the General Administration of Customs expressed on April, 10th that China's steel export in the first quarter of 2008 has fell down 19.3%, however with 7.6% year-on-year increase of export amount. China's steel export growth has been effectively curbed, while steel export prices index accelerates.   In the 3rd international forum on the steel market, Mr. Huang Guohua, chairman of Statistics Division of China's the General Administration of Customs pointed out that China's steel export has been under excessive growth ever since the realization of steel product’s net exports in 2006. China has enhanced the control on steel exports. Since last April's highest record, the steel export growth has slowed down and the growth rate decrease by 63.7% in the last year.   Huang Hua also points out that China's steel export amounts are up, while exports are falling. In the first quarter of this year, the amount of steel exports rises 7.6 percent year-on-year. Customs data showed that, compared to the more stable domestic price index of domestic exports, steel export price index has showed rising momentum. The price index of export steel in this March reached 135, up 35 percent year-on-year.