OREANDA-NEWS. June 03, 2011. China Steel Corporation (CSC) held the domestic pricing meeting for 2011 July and August shipments and announced the following statement: According to the analysis by IMF, despite the world economy uncertainties such as the earthquake in Japan and Europe’s deepening debt crisis, global economic growth of 2011 is still estimated at 4.4%. WSA also forecasted the annual worldwide apparent steel use will increase by 5.9% recently, reported the press-centre of China Steel Corporation.

Earthquake in Japan disrupted the production plans of parts makers in the supply chain of the automobile industry, resulted in a decrease for steel demand. However, the worldwide steel supply continues to increase, and Japanese steel mills were forced to release more export quantity because of sluggish domestic sales, steel price in the international market has softened recently. But after steel prices plummeting for 2 months, under the pressure of increased material costs, steel mills around the world are expected to reduce production and raise steel prices in Asia and North America.

However, even though the international steel prices might warm-up in the 3Q and CSC’s raw material cost remained at high level, the effect of earthquake on the steel market has not yet been relieved. In order to stimulate the Taiwan domestic market and maintain the competitiveness of downstream industries against recent NTD appreciation, CSC has decided to decrease the price of steel products by average 4.19%, NTD1,099/MT for July and August domestic sales.