After a stronger-than-expected first half it is time to review Kallanish’s expectations for 2017. In this issue we revise our output data to account for induction furnace capacity, and look at the knock-on implications for apparent and end user demand.  Because including induction furnaces means our forecasts won’t match official …

China’s wet summer has helped to ease the imbalance between rebar and hot rolled coil which has sent rebar prices soaring over HRC. The surge in rebar prices had been driven by capacity closures but the removal of that capacity does not necessarily mean that the rebar has now become …

Heading into summer, Chinese steel markets have remained surprisingly firm despite several warning signals starting to creep into the market. This has been in part because of a minimal slowdown in demand but mainly because of the continuing knock-on effects of the closure of induction furnace capacity.

We hope you enjoyed the steel market in Q1, because it is unlikely to be repeated any time soon. The combination of factors which made the quarter so positive for prices, and profitable for steelmakers, is already fading away. That will impact both prices and margins, and Chinese steelmakers which …