Friday, November 25, 2005

World steel price variations may be set to cause problems

Variations in Steel prices around the world, combined with overproduction in China and the Far East seem set to start a round of litigation against “unfairly” traded goods.

Actions are already afoot in the USA as reported by MEPS. The USA is currently the main target for the exporters, with wire products flooding in from China, Turkey and Germany. The strength of the dollar makes North America a particularly attractive target market at the moment, although European manufacturers are anticipating problems of their own later.

Reports of price cuts on steel products in China, can only raise more concern over the availability of cheap imports in to the US and Europe. It would be ironic, if not unexpected that China which was largely responsible for last years high increases in prices should be the spearhead of falling prices in 2006.

No comments: