As Inventory pressure persisted, steel prices are expected to fluctuate rangebound this week

Last week, ferrous metals prices first fell and then rose. Market rumours about crude steel production cap stimulated futures prices, leading to a significant rebound. In the spot market, the trading atmosphere was sluggish in the first half of the week but improved significantly in the latter half, with some traders and downstream end-users stocking up.

Looking ahead, as most steel mills still operated profitably, pig iron output stayed high, providing short-term cost support. Additionally, the highly uncertain macro and industrial impact in the short term and gradually deteriorating supply-demand imbalance in the steel market caused steel prices to have minimal upward momentum. It is expected that steel prices will continue to fluctuate rangebound this week.