The international steel market in February rose steadily. Because China, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnam, and other countries have successively spent the Spring Festival in February, there has been some asymmetry between the information and the index. Fortunately, China's environmental protection production-restricted news is favorable for steel prices, making the Asian steel market recover. Combined with the fundamentals forecast, the international steel market in March may continue to be strong.
Global crude steel production increased by 0.8%, but China's output fell by 0.9%. According to the data from the International Steel Association, in January 2018, the world’s 64 crude steel production included in the statistics of the World Iron and Steel Association was 139.4 million tons, an increase of 0.8% year-on-year. Among them, crude steel production in China was 67 million tons, down 0.9% year-on-year; in January, the utilization rate of crude steel capacity in 64 countries was 70.0%, down 0.2% year-on-year and 0.7% month-on-month.
Asian steel market: mixed. The 129.9-point steel home benchmark price index for the region's 129.9 points fell 0.3% (down from a rise) on a week-to-week basis. It was up 0.9% month-on-month (flat with the previous level) and 22.2% year-on-year.