Hebei Iron & Steel Group’s ex-factory steel price will fall by 50-450 yuan a ton in July,spurring concerns about the already declining steel price.
According to the Hebei Iron & Steel Group’s order price policy released last Thursday, constructional steel price was reduced by 50-250 yuan a ton and the plate material price decreased by 350-450 yuan a ton, compared with June.
Insiders worried this wave of price cuts might bring further decline to the downward steel prices. But some don’t think the price will continue to go down.
“Now prices for many steel products, especially the constructional steel price, was close to or even lower than the cost of production,” said Ma Li, an analyst from Langesteel.com, the most authoritative steel information service platform in China.
“Besides the slightly reduced stock and stronger cutbacks of many companies, the price is hard to keep declining in the short term. The market price will get stabilized,” he added.
In constructional steels, wire rod was down by 50 yuan a ton, deformed steel bars 250 yuan a ton in Tangshan Steel, Xuanhua Steel and Chengde Steel group. Handan Steel suffers a larger margin of decrease. The ex-factory price of plate materials, as hot rolling, cold rolling and plates of middle thickness, all went down 400 yuan a ton.
By Guo Changdong
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