BEIJING, March 11 (Xinhua) -- Steel prices in China went up slightly last week thanks to demand recovery.
The domestic spot steel price composite index closed at 144.22 last week, up 0.6 percent week on week, according to Mysteel, a domestic steel information provider.
To be specific, prices of the construction steel fluctuated and the average price of mainstream rebar varieties increased 24 yuan per metric ton (tonne) week on week. The steel plate market performed stably and the average price of the hot-rolled coils went up 15 yuan/tonne. Prices of the ordinary medium-sized plates increased 23 yuan/tonne week on week.
On the whole, the inventories and output in the domestic steel market remained high, but the release of demand for steels was better than expected, pushing up the steel prices. At the end of the week, due to the fall in the price of steel futures, the steel prices on the domestic spot market were slightly weak. It is worth noting that the demand continued to maintain high.
On the market of the iron ore, a steel-making ingredient, steel mills were cautious about the iron ore purchases. As some regions limited the steel production to cope with the heavy pollution, the demand for iron ore has been capped to some degree, according to the latest report of the Xiben New Line Stock Co., Ltd., a commodity information provider.
Prices of the iron ore imports went up amid the fluctuations. As of March 7, the price of imported iron ore at 62-percent grade was 87.05 U.S. dollar/tonne, up 2.25 U.S. dollars on a week-on-week basis.
Meanwhile, the iron ore stocks in major ports nationwide have risen for four consecutive weeks, and some steel mills are relatively cautious in their procurement.
Some analysts believed that in the short term, the domestic steel prices will likely continue the uptrend as the fundamentals of supply and demand are relatively good. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)
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