November 22, 2008

Chinese mills pledge to freeze color coated steel prices

It is reported that more regional governments have intervened in the price limits of steel products and cement for use in post quake relief. A host of mills have pledged to freeze their color coated steel at pre quake levels.

Central China’s Wuhan Steel has kept the June delivery price for color coated steel unchanged as promised in spite of the weekly price rally of CNY 100 per tonne to CNY 400 per tonne in the spot market. Moreover, the company has volunteered to produce 20,000 tonnes of color coated steel for fulfilling Hubei's commitment of providing 85,000 pre-fabricated houses for the disaster zones.

In the mean time, nine steel mills in Hebei producing color coated steel for use in quake relief have also issued a joint statement that they would ensure sufficient supply and frozen prices. Hebei has been assigned to 80,000 pre fabricated houses which would require 10.84 million tonnes of color coated steel, mainly supplied by Tanggang and Handan Steel.