After the Spring Festival, the price rises rapidly. Whether it is steel mills or the market, there are often two or three price increases a day, and the highest one day can increase by more than 500 yuan in some areas.

The rapid rise in steel prices has attracted a lot of attention. How much have steel prices gone up? What is the reason for the rise in steel prices? What impact will its rise have on related industries? What is the future trend of steel prices? Faced with a series of problems, let’s go to the market to see how much the price of steel has risen.

After the Spring Festival, the price increase is indeed very rapid. Whether it is steel mills or the market, there are often two or three price increases a day, and even five or six times a day. More than 500 dollars. The last price high was in 2008, and this year has broken the last all-time high. The average price per ton of eight major varieties of steel in the national steel market has risen, nearly 400 yuan higher than the highest point in 2008, and 2,800 yuan per ton compared with the same period last year, a year-on-year increase of 75%. In terms of varieties, rebar has risen by 1980 yuan per ton. Yuan, hot-rolled coil rose 2,050 yuan per ton. Along with the domestic steel price, the international steel price also rose, and the increase was much higher than the domestic steel price. Wang Guoqing, Director of the Research Center of Lange Steel Consulting Co., Ltd., the international price is higher than the domestic price, which will lead to an increase in domestic exports and even an increase in domestic prices.

According to the data provided by the China Iron and Steel Association, so far, China’s steel price index has risen by 23.95% compared with the beginning of the year, while the international steel price index has risen by 57.8% in the same period. The price of steel in the international market is significantly higher than that of the domestic market. In the first quarter, the global crude steel output increased by 10% year-on-year. What is the reason for such a rise in steel prices? In the production workshop of Hebei Jinan Iron and Steel’s medium and heavy plate, a batch of new plates went through the production line one after another after the last process. Sales of their products have been improving this year. Medium (thick) plate products are widely used in shipbuilding, bridge construction, machinery manufacturing and other industries. Since the beginning of this year, with the improvement of the market situation, the product sales have been booming. In addition to satisfying the domestic market sales, it is also exported to the Middle East or South American countries.

Since the beginning of this year, my country’s economy has continued to recover steadily, and the demand for steel has increased significantly, of which the construction industry has increased by 49% and the manufacturing industry has increased by 44%. In the international market, the global manufacturing PMI continued to improve. In April, the PMI reached 57.1%, which was above 50% for 12 consecutive months. Including domestic and foreign countries, especially the global economic recovery, China and the United States, which account for 40% of global GDP, have relatively good economic development data in the first quarter. China increased by 18.3% year-on-year, and the United States increased by 6.4% year-on-year. Rapid economic development will inevitably drive downstream. The growth in demand drives the growth of the market. The recovery of the global economy has driven the growth of steel consumption in the world. In the first quarter of this year, the growth rate of global crude steel production turned from negative to positive, and 46 countries achieved positive growth, compared with only 14 countries last year. Statistics from the World Steel Association show that in the first quarter of this year, global crude steel production increased by 10% year-on-year.

Quantitative Easing Policy Overall rise in commodity prices Speaking of rising steel prices, there is a special reason related to the epidemic. In 2020, in response to the epidemic, various countries around the world have launched relevant stimulus policies to support economic development to varying degrees. Due to the over-issue of currencies in the US dollar area and the euro area, inflation has intensified and has been transmitted and radiated to the world, resulting in the global consumption of steel, including steel. Commodity prices rose across the board. As the most important basic industry of steel, any change in it is the result of the pull of the macro economy. The inflation brought about by loose money and loose finance in the world has caused the price of all raw materials to rise. The United States has launched an ultra-loose monetary policy since March 2020, with a total of more than 5 trillion US dollars of rescue plans put into the market, and the European Central Bank also announced in late April that it will maintain an ultra-loose monetary policy to support economic recovery. Due to inflationary pressures, emerging countries also began to passively raise interest rates. Affected by this, from the beginning of 2022, the global prices of production materials such as grain, crude oil, gold, iron ore, copper, and aluminum have risen across the board. Taking iron ore as an example, the landed price of imported iron ore rose from US$86.83/ton last year to US$230.59/ton, an increase of 165.6%. Under the influence of iron ore prices, the main raw materials for steel, including coking coal, coke and scrap steel, all rose, which further pushed up the cost of steel production.