Bull Market for Automotive Steel Pushes Baosteel to Increase Prices

Chinese Baosteel announced again the price increase for steel materials, which was the second time of price increase over the past two months. As the current market demand for automotive steel is particularly tremendous than others, almost all industry analysts for steel expect that in a short term the price for automotive steel will be increased again due to prospects in the automotive market.

According to the prices announced by Baosteel for this Feb., prices of all steel materials (except for electrical steel being still flat) were increased by RMB50-100 per ton. This is the second time during the past two months for Baosteel to increase the prices. Prior to the price increase, Baosteel had maintained flat prices for consecutive 3 months.