Hot-rolled Coil Exports to Spike February-March as Export Profits Exceed Domestic Sales

SHANGHAI, Mar 2 (SMM) - Many domestic steel mills said that China’s export quotations of steel have once again enjoyed price advantages against the rising overseas steel prices since January, when the export profits were already significantly higher than those of domestic sales. As a result, steel mills were passionate about taking overseas orders, and some of them had received so many orders that would sustain their production to March. According to SMM survey, most of the shipments are scheduled for March-April. SMM expects that exports of hot-rolled coil will surge in the next two months. 

Considering that the price spread between domestic and overseas products is not large enough to drive large influx of imported hot-rolled coil, SMM expects that the imports will have run at a low level in February.