China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said that it would not be raising prices for some products next month, ending 12 consecutive months of increases.
“There is a discrepancy between China Steel’s prices and international prices, but in consideration of price stability, we have decided not to adjust upward monthly-priced products,” the company said in a statement.
That means the price of hot-rolled steel plates, hot-rolled steel coils, cold-rolled steel coils and other monthly-priced items would not change next month.
Photo: Qilai Shen, Bloomberg
However, the cost of other items priced seasonally would be going up, the company said, adding that prices of products would be raised by 4.1 percent on average.
Prices of steel plates for the shipping industry would be raised by NT$2,000 per tonne, while prices of high-carbon hot-rolled steel plates, automotive steel, cold-rolled coils and hot-rolled coils would be raised by NT$2,900 per tonne, the company said.
“The accumulated gains in the global market for seasonal products demanded a reasonable adjustment to bring domestic prices closer to global market prices,” China Steel said.
Given the severe shortage of materials downstream consumers are experiencing, the company announced that it would “allow the appropriate imports of steel materials to solve the shortage.”
The statement also said that climate change and carbon taxes are becoming a global trend, and domestic buyers should take carbon neutrality costs into account going forward.
“Starting from next year, China Steel plans to add environmental costs such as carbon fees to our export orders,” the statement said. “The steel industry must respond to the global trend to decarbonize and calculate the carbon footprint of its products.”
“China Steel suggests that downstream companies prepare for the changes that are to come,” it added.
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