Taiwanese Steel Mill Announces Price Rise

CSC To Increase By Over $60 A Tonne

Taiwan’s largest steelmakers, China Steel Corporation (CSC), Taiwan`s largest has announced that it expects to raise the prices of its major products to be shipped in June.

CSC has accepted a 90% price hike in its iron ore supplies, effective from April 1 while prices for coke have risen by 55%. CSC estimates that steel refinery costs have risen by between US$170 and US$200 per metric ton and has announced that a price rise of $62.89 per tonne for goods to be shipped in June.

Despite the increase, CSC claims that its hot-rolled steel prices are still lower than those from steel mills in other Asian countries with current quotes at $605 per tonne, some $90-140 a tonne lower than those from China, Japan and Korea.

Blackstone Group Takes Stake In Indian Power Project

US investment company, Blackstone Group, is to acquire a 12% stake in Monnet Ispat & Energy’s Greenfield power plant to be set up in Orissa, India.

The 1050 megawatt plant is expected to cost in excess of Rs50 billion and will be funded through a mix of equity capital and debt.

Monnet Ispat is principally engaged in the manufacture of sponge, steel and ferro alloys. The Company has a combined capacity of 0.86 million tons per annum of sponge iron, 0.3 million tons per annum of steel, 0.06 million tons per annum of ferro alloys and power generation facility of 150 megawatts besides running an underground coal mine in India.

Hebei Iron and Steel Suggests Unified Iron Ore Price

Reports from China suggest that a proposal has been put to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) that a national iron ore company be formed to centralise imports.

The report, in the People’s Daily quoting the website sina.com.cn, suggests that a senior executive from Hebei Iron and Steel Group, China’s second-largest steel mill, has made the proposal that the country’s 16 largest steel mills band together to form the new company, which would unify import prices and distribute iron ore according to its ownership ratios. The move – bringing together mills with a production capacity of 10 million tons a year – would enhance China’s bargaining power with the large iron ore miners.

Hebei Steel Vice-General Manager Tian Zhiping, said on Monday that he was unaware of any such proposal.

Last month, the vice-president of the China Iron and Steel Association, Luo Bingsheng, said that reducing the number of licensed importers and promoting the agent system at a unified price for iron ore will be primary targets for CISA this year. He said that China must strive for a unified price for iron ore imports to regulate the market and erase the difference between contract and spot prices.

Agents can levy a commission of 3 to 5 percent on the total iron ore import charges collected.

Analysts have suggested that with Chinese steel production set to top 620 million tonnes this year, the benchmark price for iron ore imports would rise by anything from 30 per cent upwards. Investec Securities Plc raised its forecast for 2010 iron ore prices to an increase of over 55 percent. It had previously suggested a 20 percent hike.

Prices of the 63.5 percent iron-content ore rose to $142 per ton including freight on Monday, according to Mysteel Index, more than double the $60 a ton benchmark price level reached in 2009.

"The Hebei proposal aims to enhance import concentration to gain more bargaining power at the ore talks. However, the same can be achieved by consolidating steel mills, and I think that would be an easier step," said Hu Kai, a senior analyst at consulting firm Umetals.

Gindalbie, Anshan Sign Co-operation Deal

Australian iron ore miner, Gindalbie Metals and its Chinese shareholder Anshan Iron and Steel Group (Ansteel), have taken their co-operation a stage further with a deal to develop metallurgical coal, manganese, chromite and nickel projects, and pellet plants and steel mills in Australia.

Gindalbie and Ansteel currently co-operate on an iron ore project at Karara in Western Australia.

"The assets to be targeted will primarily be in the carbon steel materials sector ... as well as downstream processing opportunities such as pellet plants and steel mills," Gindalbie said in a statement on Wednesday.

The statement added: "Ansteel will contribute its extensive experience as a global iron ore and steel company and access to capital to potential joint development opportunities which can provide it with long-term sources of supply of raw materials from Australia. Gindalbie will contribute its geological and resource project expertise, contacts and knowledge base within the Australian resource sector to actively identify, explore and develop quality resource projects."
Gindalbie managing director, Garret Dixon, said the two partners had already identified several opportunities and will be stepping up their search in the months ahead.

Last year Ansteel and the West Australian government agreed to undertake a feasibility study to construct the state’s first steel mill at the Oakajee industrial estate near Geraldton, which is centred on a new deep water export port. Land clearing for the project is well advanced and exports are slated to commence in 2011.

Ansteel is Gindalbie's largest shareholder with a 36.2 per cent stake.

China's Iron Ore Imports Fall 25 Per Cent In January

China’s iron ore imports fell by 25 per cent in January as the country suffered its harshest winter for some years. Steel exports also fell.

China’s General Administration of Customs said iron ore imports were at 46.62 million tonnes – down from 62.16 million tonnes in December, though the December figure was the second-highest ever recorded. Bad weather caused bottlenecks in some major ports as sea ice disrupted shipping.

Net exports of steel fell to 1.54 million tonnes.

Baosteel - Iron Ore Prices Unlikely To Rise Next Year

Baosteel Group Corporation (Baosteel) raised January 2010 steel prices December 10, 2009. After the price adjustment, the main product prices of Baosteel have basically returned to their high level in 2009. The action was followed by Wuhan Iron and Steel (Group) Corp. (WISCO), Anshan Iron and Steel Group and other enterprises increasing their steel prices.

Ma Guoqiang, general manager of Baosteel, said December 15, 2009 that next year in terms of steel demand and the overall price, the situation will be greatly improved compared to this year, but the overcapacity issue will remain. He also said that the world's major steel enterprises' financial situation is still not optimistic this year, and this means that the iron ore price is unlikely to rise next year.

Next year's domestic production capacity may surpass 600 million tons

Ma expected that thanks to the 4 trillion yuan economic stimulus plan, as well as investment demand in real estate and infrastructure, this year the domestic steel production capacity could reached 5.7 million tons. Judging by the just-concluded Central Economic Work Conference, next year proactive fiscal policy and moderate loose monetary policy will be continued. The national crude steel output in 2010 could reach more than 600 million tons.

He also said next year China's economic growth will rely more on domestic demand and growth in investment will be less than this year. Based on this premise, combined with reduction in vehicle purchasing tax and the possibility of continuing the home appliances to the countryside policy, the outlook for steel demand is optimistic.

Furthermore, as urbanization continues to advance, the demand for steel will be diversified, which will generate a new round of domestic steel demand. Relatively speaking, with the cooling down in investment in infrastructure, construction steel demand growth will slow in 2010.

Ma also said the situation of overcapacity will be more prominent in the next year. In his view, eliminating backward production capacity will need to rely on economic measures, but the key is to strictly enforce environmental regulations, making those iron and steel enterprises with high pollution and high energy consumption lose their cost advantage.

Ma Guoqiang said at Baosteel there will be no increase in production capacity next year, and they will continue adjusting the product structure in accordance with national requirements.

"Due to the constraints of anti-dumping by foreign countries, while China has large production capacity, the price of seamless steel pipe products in 2010 is not optimistic."

"Baosteel next year will insist on differentiation strategies and produce the relative cost-competitive products that other domestic steel mills can not produce," Ma said.

Ma said the iron ore market is a global market, so it directly relates to global supply and demand. From a global perspective, the financial situation of some iron and steel enterprises in 2009 is very difficult, and a considerable number of enterprises suffered losses or meager profits, insufficient to support the price rise of iron ore next year.

However, according to a report from ratings agency the Fitch Ratings Corporates Group, China's steel output recovery is pushing up the prices of raw materials, and the agency expects prices of raw materials to increase 15 percent -20 percent in 2010 than in 2009. Since the end of 2008, downstream operating costs of the steel company which are self-sufficiency in raw materials may have been reduced. These companies will make profits when capacity utilization rate is more than 75 percent.

Source: People's Daily

China Steel To Maintain Australia Coal Imports

Zhong Yuemin, executive vice president from China Steel Co.(CSC) claimed on November 17 that the company’s 75% of coal demand would be imported from Australia.

He also said that CSC still hoped to achieve the diversity of the coal resource, however, in view of issues such as shipping cost, supply stability and port facilities, coupled with the port congestion in Queensland of Australia, the company will continue to maintain the aforesaid ratio.

According to the annual report from CSC, the imports of the company’s steel-making coking coal reduced by 5.1% to 8.1mln tons in 2008 from that in 2007. Although the data has not been announced in 2009, Zhong Yuemin stated that coking coal imports may keep the same level in 2009 as 2008.

He also said that CSC’ s 77.4% and 15% of coal demand imported from Australia and Canada correspondingly and 90% of coal purchased though long-term contract.

CSC has four blast furnaces into operation, with a total capacity of 10mln tons annually.

Dragon Steel Corporation, the company’s wholly-own subsidiary is building two 2.5mln tons of blast furnaces, one of which is estimated to put into production in February of 2010.

Zhong Yuemin pointed out, CSC has started to build coal inventory for the aforesaid blast furnaces, and planned to use coking coal furnaces by the end of this month to supply steel-making blast furnaces coal.

However, the coal imports of CSC will not rise sharply, as the company will suspend its No.1 blast furnace for six-month maintenance from the January of 2010, with 1.9mln tons annual capacity.

He added that if all things go well, the company’s coal imports may rise in H2 of 2010.

Calculated by revenue, CSC is the largest steel manufacturing enterprise in Taiwan.

Source: Alibaba

China's Steel Capacity To Hit 700 Million Tonnes By 2010

Recent economic indices have reported that China's steel industry showed signs of recovery recently. From January to September China's total steel output was 501.8 million tonnes, up by 12.4%YoY. The monthly output broke the 60 million tonne level in June, reached61.983 million tonnes in August and 61.16 million tonnes in September, respectively. The total steel apparent consumption in January to August recorded at 438.312 million tonnes, up by 18.77% among which apparent consumption in August read at 61.493 million tonnes.

In Q1 this year, China's medium- and large-scale steel mills together made total losses of CNY 3.432 billion. However, the situation changed to positive in Q2, with total profits of CNY 3.313 billion. In quarter 3 the profit further increased thanks to steel price increases in June and July. However, the foundation for steel industry recovery may not firm enough. Steel prices started to decline in early August, notably known as the second round of market adjustment. On September 25th, the composite steel price index posted at 102.65, down 11.75% from the August 7th 116.32. From the macro economy level, China's economy is on a stable recovery track, indicating that steel demand sees no evident shrinkage and the market situation of steel products is mainly caused by a huge supply.

At the beginning of 2009, the country set a target of crude steel output at 460 million tonnes, but mills expanded their productions ambitiously supported by increasing prices. Through August, total crude steel output reached 370 million tonnes with daily output at 1.52 million tonnes, up 11.24% YoY. This production equals an annual output of 555 million tonnes. China's steel capacity was 660 million tonnes last year while the demand was only 500 million tonnes, resulting in about 25% of the total output relying on the international market. Clearly, the problem of overcapacity will be even more severe in 2010 as there are about 58 million tonnes of new capacity under construction.

Therefore, to take the actions quickly in controlling steel production is of significance to the stability and long term development of China steel industry. The related government departments have rolled out several regulations this year. As an industry features the strong characters of market and global resources distribution, the restriction of production in steel industry should combine the market mechanism and administrative measures together. However, this could never be an easy task and demands efforts in many years to come.

Source: Steel Guru

China To Close "Outdated" Steel Mills

According to Mr Li Yizhong Minister of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People Republic of China that China was now plagued by its serious overcapacity in the steel industry.

The source said now there were still 58 million tonnes of capacity under construction. Against such backgrounds, Chinese government was framing relative policies to close down out of dated steel mills and would strictly prohibit those mills getting out of line.

Mr Li said steel capacity in Mainland China had already reached some 660 million tons per year while with the actual demand of 470 million tons. In the mean time a lot of new projects were still under construction with total capacity of some 58 million tons per year. He said that "The problem will be intensified along with the slowing down demand growth. Chinese steel industry will come to a dead end at last."

Mr Luo Bingsheng vice chairman of CISA said the nation iron ore imports this year had already exceeded the actual demand by about 50 million tons, leaving no room for further rises. He said that “We believe that the recent price rise in iron ore market is largely influenced by the speculation on the market.”

Source: Steel Guru

Chinese Steel Producers Paying 77 Per Cent More Than Competitors For Iron Ore

Some Chinese steel makers paid an of average 77 per cent more than their competitors for iron ore during the September quarter, as tough negotiations with producers left many paying spot prices, new analysis shows.

Large Japanese, South Korean and Taiwanese steel makers accepted new benchmark prices for 2009 that were about 33 per cent cheaper than 2008 rates, but Chinese companies held out for a better deal.

In an attempt to secure lower prices, many Chinese mills allowed the government-controlled China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) to negotiate on their behalf.

CISA sought a price cut of 40 to 45 per cent, but failed to secure any deal, leaving many mills in the Asian nation to pay spot prices which rapidly became more expensive.

Iron ore analyst with Resource Capital Research, Trent Allen, said large Chinese steel mills had negotiated directly with iron ore miners and had deals comparable to competitors, but smaller firms ended up paying spot prices.

"The smaller steel mills which were forced to buy ore at spot were paying a 77 per cent premium to the contract rate which was paid by their larger compatriots," Mr Allen said.

He said the delivered contract ore cost, including freight, was about $US66.75 a tonne for Chinese customers in September, assuming it was 62 per cent pure, while the average quarterly spot price in China was RMB811.85 ($US118.79).

"There were some accusations that some of the larger mills were buying at the contract rate and selling it into the spot market, and profiteering," he said.

The largest price differential was in early August, when Chinese spot prices got as high as RMB920 ($US134.76) per tonne, more than twice the cost of benchmark ore, he said.

There has been speculation Chinese steelmaker Baosteel will lead negotiations for the 2010 benchmark deal, expected to commence soon.

The 2009 benchmark talks with Chinese steel makers hit the headlines after Rio Tinto Ltd iron ore officials, including Australian man Stern Hu, were accused of stealing state secrets and locked by authorities.

Mr Hu and his colleagues remain behind bars awaiting trial, although the charges against them have been downgraded.

Source: Melbourne Age

Lack Of Direction In Chinese Steel Prices

Securities Daily reports that some steel product EXW prices have gone beyond spot prices, an abnormal phenomenon that has come about because big steel producers have no inclination to cut prices.

Analyst believed that although some leading steel producers have an undeniable influence in pricing, they have to abide by the rules of the market.

Shagang, China's largest rebar producer, announced it was raising rebar EXW prices by another CNY 50 per tonne last week just after its price improvement of CNY 600 per tonne made earlier this month. Baosteel has also moved up the price for a second batch of carbon steel for September delivery and of HR&CR product prices by around CNY 600 per tonne. Their price adjustments have not been accepted by the market in spite of their prestige in the industry, which could be testified by the sharp diving steel prices in the domestic market in the past two weeks.

Futures followed hot on the heels of the spot market with rebar presenting a deep downtrend in the past two weeks after climbing up to CNY 4982 per tonne on August 4th and then falling to around CNY 4400 per tonne. What deserves attention is that domestic small and medium steel mills keep a wary eye on the price adjustment with an anticipation to expand their market shares.

Statistics showed that 60 wire rods and rebar producers made price adjustments last week, most of which moved their offers down according to market changes, in contrast to leading suppliers such as Baosteel and Shagang.

Analyst tbelievethat the steel price loss is mainly attributed to most steel producers' moves in adjusting EXW prices downwards given the market changes, apart from the part reason as dwindling end demand and speculation.

Market Department Director Lijian with Ma'anshan Iron & Steel Company said wire rod and rebar, characterized as low value added and acute competitive varieties, lacks concentration in industry, let alone monopoly and there is no nationwide steel mill which has the authoritative pricing power on these items. That may explain the sharp up and down of the market.

Source: Steel Guru

China Steel Prices To "Rise Moderately" In 2010

According to Ms Xie Qihua former chairwoman of Baosteel that Chinese steel production is very likely to break 500 million tonnes this year benefited from the increasing order books from auto and ship sectors and steel price would rise moderately next year.

Ms Xie is upbeat about future steel market due to the CNY 4 trillion governmental economic rescue packages. She said that "Steel price would hold the uptrend next year, though not so hectic as what happened last year. She also concerned about future price bubbles.”

Domestic steel demand has nosed up substantially since the second quarter especially for auto sheet. This coupled with the infrastructure-led stimulus plans sent monthly steel production in June and July higher than the same period of last year.

Ms Xie said iron ore imports surged 29% in the H1 amid rising domestic ore output. However imports in the H2 might decrease.

SourcE: Steel Guru

China Steel Profits May Hit $3 Billion In July

The Chinese steel industry's profit in July may have exceeded 20 billion yuan ($2.93 billion), its largest monthly gain in eight years, as domestic prices rose, the official Shanghai Securities News said on Monday, citing an official of the China Iron and Steel Association. The paper added that if steel prices remain stable, full-year profit for the industry could be 100 billion yuan, exceeding the previous year's 84.6 billion yuan.

It noted that industry website MySteel's benchmark index for domestic steel prices rose 11.9 percent in July, while the index for flat products rose 9.5 percent. Chinese steel prices have risen as government stimulus measures helped to boost the steel industry, the world's largest, back into a combined profit in May after seven consecutive monthly losses.

The industry remains locked in protracted price negotiations with global iron ore miners, however, as it seeks greater price reductions than those achieved by other steelmakers.

Source: Reuters

China's Steel Capacity Utilisation To Run At 71%

The China Securities Journal has cited Mr Jiang Feitao from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences as saying that China's steelmaking capacity utilization rate may fall to 71.64% in 2009 the lowest since 2001.

Mr Jiang said the utilisation rate posted at 75.83% last year, versus around 80% during 2001 to 2007 and 92.35% in 2002.

However, compared with the extensive global output cut China's crude steel production level remains high and stood at 127 million tonnes in the Q1 up by 1.19%YoY from a year ago. While global production in the period off massively by 22.92%; of which, EU, North America and Japan eyed over 42% output falls.

The high output was mainly contributed by the reviving construction steel production like rebar, wire rod and medium and small sized sections; while the recovery of flat products steel under oversupply pressure.

In the Q1 rebar output grew 20.96%YoY from a year ago wire rod up 8.21% and medium and small-gauged sections advanced by 21.37%. Flat products output in the quarter posted at 50.69 million tonnes down by 7.68% from the previous year; narrow strip, 10.09 million tonnes off 2.33%. And the centralized capacity utilization of the product this year is certain to exert great pressure on its recovery.

Source: Steel Guru

China Steel Exports Remain Low Amidst Falling Prices, Demand

China's domestic steel market still shows no positive uptick after eight weeks' continuous drop. Steel prices in major markets fell slightly again.

In Beijing, the prices of HR sheet and medium-heavy plate dropped by CNY 50 per tonne from the day before, that of checkered plate declined by CNY 100 per tonne and that of low alloy plate down by CNY 150 to 200 per tonne. Meanwhile, the price of colour-coated sheet and H-beam also saw decreases, with other products staggering along the bottom level.

In Nanjing, the price of rebar dropped by CNY 20 to 60 per tonne, that of round steel declined by CNY 110 per tonne, that of common medium plate decreased by CNY 20 to 100 per tonne while that of some low-alloy plate plunged by CNY 500 per tonne. In the Guangzhou market, wire rod, high-speed wire rod and common medium plate all dropped slightly. The price of HRC dropped CNY 30 to 150 per tonne while that of other products remained flat.

Top steelmakers such as Baosteel and Shagang all cut their price last week.

Insiders say the huge production capacity and weak demand are the major problems facing the steel industry at the moment and it is hard to say when the global market will start to recover. However, steel inventory in major cities is starting to fall. In the Shanghai market the inventory of rebar was recorded at 424,600 tonnes, down by 3.3% from last week and that of HRC was 763,860 tonnes, down by 2.8% from last week. Analysts said the inventory drop will help support the price.

The China Iron and Steel Association said that to tackle the current difficulties, steel mills should arrange their productions according to market demand and optimise their product mix to expand the export.

According to the statistics from General Customs, China's steel exports witnessed a cumulative drop of 52% in the first 2 months of 2009, while in February the export volume dropped 49.6% YoY or 18.1% MoM to the lowest level since November 2005.

General Customs attributes the soft demand to the weakening global demand, emerging protectionism, the currencies' depreciation in neighbouring countries and the high duty on low value added products export.

Source: Steel Guru

Chinese Steel Industry Q1 Loss Will "Exceed CNY10 Billion"

Speculation in China suggests that they gross profit per tonne of steel tonnage manufactured by the Chinese steel industry was less than CNY 100 per tonne in March. TX Investment Consulting speculates the combined loss for domestic steel producers in Q1 would exceed CNY 10 billion.

As per TX's report, in the first two months of this year gross profit for domestic ferrous metal smelting and rolling posted a loss of CNY 769 million down by 103.02% from a year ago and that for ferrous metal mining & dressing also fell 65.84% YoY to CNY 2.34 billion.

According to figures released by the Statistics Bureau the falling profits of the two industries indicate an overall steel industrial loss, with the falling range far exceeding the averaged 37.3% total profit drop for China's above-scale industrial enterprises. The further profit deterioration is due primarily to flagging demand. Statistics show that prices for coking coal in the first two months have fallen to CNY 1,200 per tonne lower than the same period of last year.

Profit growth for steelmaking down-stream sectors also turned negative in the period; of which transport & communication facilities manufacturing records the sharpest drop to negative 40.4% from 15.7% posted in last November. That for universal equipment manufacturing and specialized equipment manufacturing fell to minus 4.43% and minus 13.4% respectively from last November 20.36% and 9.4%.

The faltering demand also prolonged steel mills' destocking circle. China's steel inventories have mounted up week on week since January with stockpiles for flat and long products hitting 5.46 million tonnes and 5.87 million tonnes respectively by the end of February.

Source: Steel Guru

Chinese Steel Mills Expect Price Increases This Year

A survey of 24 Chinese steel mills reveals that most expect steel prices to rise this year in spite of faultering domestic demand and exports.

According to the survey by Steel Business Briefing, a majority of the mills expect average steel prices to rise, even though half of them expect domestic steel demand to fall and two-thirds expect exports to decline.

Baosteel, China's largest steelmaker, has already decided to raise product prices by 6 to 10 percent from February after the Chinese government announced it would likely spend 10 to 15 billion yuan to establish a reserve of 3 to 5 million tons late last December.

Many steelmakers have released their prediction for their 2008 annuan reports. Most of them are predicting net profits will drop by more than 50 percent. Profits at Anshan Steel are expected to drop 55 percent, and Liuzhou Steel 98 percent.

Source: Proactive Investor

China's Steelmakers 'Still Bear-ish'

Reports from China suggest that despite a five-week upturn in steel prices, the nation's steel producers are still bear-ish about the industry's prospects for the coming year.

Ma Guoqiang, deputy managinf director of the Baosteel Group said that the slump affecting the auto, household appliance and shipbuilding sectors have forced his company to idle some furnaces and run below capacity in others. He said that the Baosteel has signed 100% of its purchase contracts for January production and at present 70% for February production although output this month may drop 20%. He added that "Some leading mills will launch their new capacities this year, which would further weigh on the already strained market; and 600m tons capacity can only be fully consumed by a GDP growth of some 12%."

Hebei Iron & Steel Group has revised up its steel production downwards by nearly 9 million tonnes to 41 million tonnes. Mr Liu Zheming, vice general-manager of the group said "The new investment in railway from central government has yet to come, and those from local authorities also have yet to take effect. This year will be more difficult for state-run mills than private ones."

Angang and Wugang, two state-owned companies, also have raised up production targets based on their brighter view towards the market demand in second quarter. What concerned most was the revival of medium and small-sized steel mills bolstered by the recently-announced economic rescue package, whose production resumption would push up the price of raw materials.

Wugang aims to expand its crude steel production by 6 million tonnes to 33 million tonnes in 2009. The steel mill is running its construction and railway steel lines at full rate at the moment but with some other lines still idle.

Angang expects to export 1.26 million tonnes of steel this year, down almost 50% from a year ago, while Hebei Iron & Steel Group also revised its export projections downwards.

Delong Expecting To Report Losses

The Chinese steel trader and producer Delong Holdings Ltd, which is subject to a takeover bid from Russia's Evraz Group, expects to report losses for 2008.

In an announcement today Delong attributed the losses to a drop in steel prices in the Chinese market in the second half of the year.

The company has cut output by 30% since October in a bid to reduce losses as demand for steel has fallen, although it said it still has enough resources to fund its operations. In addition, Delong said that on Jan. 5 it re-started two of the four blast furnaces that closed operations in October as demand for steel has started to recover.

Delong expects to publish its financial results for 2008 by February 28th. At present, Evraz, which owns a 10% stake in Delong, is waiting for the necessary regulatory approvals from the Chinese authorities to acquire a controlling stake in the company. Best Decade Holdings Ltd., the core shareholder of Delong, has agreed to extend the deadline until February 18th for Evraz to complete the takeover.

Source: Steel Guru

China Steel Prices Edge Up

China steel prices edged up slightly during the first week of January 2009 according to the China Weekly Product Price And Price Index.

The price of 6.5mm dia Wire Rod rose by almost 3% to RMB3690/MT while HR Coil was up by 5.68% to RMB4022/MT. Steel Plate showed the slowest rate of increase of the eight products in the index with a rise of 0.49% over the week to RMB4414/MT.

All prices are well down on those of a year ago; 6.5mm Wire Rod was at RMB4518/MT at the end of the first week in January and has fallen by 18.3% since then; HR Coil was at RMB4956/MT and has showed a similar fall, while Plate has fallen almost 21% from RMB5578/MT.

Source: Chinaesteel.com