Monthly steel market news (2022.04.01-2022.04.30)

comparing to usd currency：1 : 6.33 on 2022-03-30 21:57, the usd increased in value 3.791%, which means the exporting amount decreased on 3.791% in cost.

energy prices remain high and importers' purchases of foreign exchange have increased, which are also triggered the downturn in the exchange rate of the rmb against the u.s. dollar in short term. in an interview with china securities, the expert analyzed that the spread of the domestic epidemic, disturbances in the supply chain and the official opening of the interest rate hike cycle by the federal reserve, the rmb exchange rate may further release depreciation pressure.

2. seamless steel pipe cost ↑ and welded pipe cost ↓ a little bit.

on the earlier of april, almost all of chinese national seamless pipe mills has adjusted pipe cost with adding policy because most of chinese national mills are full of casing and tubing sales contracts and epidemics also influence the material handling. while for the welded pipe, it was already increase largely in last month, and the it has decreased a little in spot market.

at the beginning of this week, the steel price has down sharply, and the billet price continued to fall. the price of the billet in shandong dropped by usd12/ton, and the price of the billet in jiangsu dropped by usd12-16/ton. it is relatively normal level for the deals because the purchasers are choose to wait and by the influence of continuous impact of the epidemics. near the labor holiday, the black futures stopped falling and rose instead, and the market sentiment has improved. therefore, it is expected that the pipe price will rise steadily after the holiday.

3. container sea freight down / bulk shipment freight keep stable in general

based on this month, the container sea freight still decrease with small range than last month. but it is large range comparing to jan. and feb. this year. eg. brisbane port, us$8500-9000/40gp, while now it is us$6300/40gp around. (different quantity different costs) but it forecast that will increase few hundred of freight on may.

while for the bulk shipment, some of seaports back to feb. cost, which has not up heavily as march’s. hoping sea freight will back to normal stage as many countries already open the gate and economy is recovering now !

4. covid-19

the covid-19 rebound, especially in shanghai, which causes much delays in exporting delivery on shanghai port. but our government controls so fastly, most of ares has controlled, so the production and working runs normally in each area. but the inland materials handling is not so fast as usual. and expect that the situation will better in may because of strict and fast controls. 

edit by vivian zhang