Even if the price cut has not stimulated the terminal's heavy-volume purchases, the decline in domestic spot steel prices continued to expand. The price of imported iron ore has also fallen sharply, and has fallen below two consecutive "integer" prices.
In the past week, the composite index of domestic spot steel prices closed at 123.6 points, down 4.84% for the week. Due to the sluggish market transactions, the steel market has high inventories. After the merchants cut prices, they did not stimulate heavy-volume purchases at the terminal. Coupled with the sharp drop in the steel futures market, billet prices frequently fell, and panic spread in the spot steel market, where confidence was weak, and merchants could only further sell their products.
According to analysis, in the construction steel market, prices have fallen sharply. The ton price in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Jinan and other places fell by 50 yuan to 270 yuan a week. In Shanghai and other markets, it can be seen that steel prices have fallen sharply and market transactions have been sluggish. However, the capacity utilization rate of blast furnace enterprises is further recovering, and the process of market inventory digestion has slowed down. In order to control risks, merchants can only significantly reduce prices to ship. .
In the sheet metal market, price declines are also increasing. The price of hot-rolled coil has plummeted, and the ton price in Shanghai, Guangzhou, Wuhan and other places has plunged by 100 yuan to 320 yuan a week. This rapid sell-off was mainly affected by sluggish transactions and the slump in the steel futures market. However, after the oversold, the market's "bottom-hunting" demand increased slightly, and the futures market also rebounded to a certain extent, and the spot price rose slightly. The price decline of medium and heavy plate accelerated, and the ton price in Shanghai, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, Shenyang and other places fell by 30 yuan to 240 yuan a week. After the sharp drop in prices, the high inventory level in the market is still difficult to drive an effective rebound in prices.
Iron ore market prices are also falling. According to the latest report, in the domestic ore market, the price of iron concentrates in Hebei has fallen further, and the cumulative ton price has dropped by 60 to 70 yuan a week. The transaction of domestic mines has obviously turned weak, many steel mills have suspended the purchase of domestic mines, and some domestic mines have increased the preferential margin. The price of imported ore fell sharply. After falling below the staged support price of 80 US dollars per ton, it also fell below the 70 US dollar per ton price. As of the 13th, the Platts 62% iron ore index closed at $69 per ton, a sharp drop of $7.2 in a week, hitting a new low since mid-November last year. Recently, the arrival of iron ore at the port has continued to increase, and the market supply has exceeded the demand.
The analysis of relevant institutions believes that the current factors affecting the trend of steel prices can be described as "long-short entanglement": on the one hand, the market supply is gradually increasing, the inventory and capital pressure of steel mills are increasing, and the market has lingering fears about the sharp drop in steel prices; on the other hand, in the first quarter, the The overall economic data is improving, and the "cutting overcapacity" has once again increased its efforts, which has a certain boosting effect on market confidence. In the short term, domestic steel prices will show a trend of consolidation. (Reporter Li Rong, Xinhua News Agency, Shanghai, April 16)
