Although the the car market is improving, this report from Bloomberg indicates that Baoshan steel have lowered the price of steel sold to automotive and appliance manufacturers in a bid to reel in sales once again. Worries about a slow down in the economy seem to have trickled down to the consumer level and many seemed to have postponed buying their bigger ticket items in the first half of 2012.
Baoshan Iron & Steel Co., China’s biggest publicly traded steelmaker, lowered prices as demand from makers of appliances and cars slowed.
Prices were cut by as much as 400 yuan ($63) a metric ton for July delivery, the Shanghai-based company said in a statement on its trade website bsteel.com. Most hot-rolled and cold-rolled products were reduced by 200 yuan a ton. Baoshan had raised prices by 100 yuan in January and as much as 200 yuan in March and kept most grades little changed in the other months this year.
Steel prices in China, the world’s biggest producer and consumer of the alloy, have fallen for eight straight weeks because of waning demand from builders and automakers. China’s daily steel production in May fell from the previous month, based on monthly data collated by the National Bureau of Statistics and the output may fall further in June.
There was a time when Baoshan couldn’t sell its cold rolled steel to joint venture makers for other reasons. But with advances in its quality that apparently has changed.