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BEIJING, Mar 9 (CEIS): Steel price in China will stop rising soon and begin to fall around mid March, predicts an analyst recently.
Although the first two months this year has witnessed a small rebound in steel price, the trend will not last for long, said Zhou Dexin, an analyst with the Xinjiang Securities Research Institute.
Steel price in China, mostly that of cold rolled plates, is mainly decided by market demands, which is weak in the long run, said Zhou.
Zhou based his prediction on two facts: first, the price gap between imported and home-produced steel has been narrowed, leaving domestic steel makers little excuse to raise their price; second, recent price hike has sti et by 430 yuan per ton, while its peer Ma'anshan Steel increased by 330 yuan to 400 yuan.
China's top steel maker Baosteel (Shanghai-listed, 600019) has announced to raise its steel products prices for the second quarter, by some 13-18 per cent, as compared with those for the first quarter.
The price rise was higher than what had earlier been predicted by many market analysts, by 5-10 per cent.
The market price of steel in China has gone up over 20 per cent since the beginning of this year.
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