OREANDA-NEWS. March 07, 2012. China Steel Corporation (CSC) held the domestic pricing meeting for 2012 April-May shipments and announced the following statement, reported the press-centre of CSC:

As the Euro zone sealed second Greece bailout, US congress passed payroll tax-cut extension and China decreased bank reserve ratio to boost the money supply, global economy showed optimistic signs of recovery. Although Taiwan exports and imports both declined in January and the DGBAS (Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics) revised downward the predicted GDP growth rate to 3.96% in 2012, however, benefited from ECFA early harvest zero duty and government policy to spur domestic consumption, Taiwan economy is expected to bottom out in Q1 2012.

Due to successful production cut strategies by the supply side in Q4 last year, and seasonal demands for restocking, world steel prices rose up. Considering the balance between costs and benefits, most Chinese tier I mills lifted up prices for March shipments. For Asian market, prices offered by Japanese and Korean mills kept increasing, leaving the opportunity to raise prices in domestic market. Global steel market is bouncing back.

Cheered up by global economic recovery and a trend of steel price increase, Taiwan downstream industries restored energy for domestic and foreign sales. The prices for some main steel products have been picking up since Chinese New Year Vacation. However, considering the risk of global economy uncertainty still exists and the impact of NTD appreciation emerges, to help downstream industries stay competitive in export markets, CSC has decided to increase prices for April and May domestic sales slightly by an average of 1.11%, or NTD270/MT, except those for bars and rods, which stay unchanged.