Trade tensions caused by US protectionism and high import tariffs are forcing China to seek new markets by increasing steel exports. This fact, coupled with an oversupply of production in China, naturally worries other suppliers, who fear that China will flood the markets with cheap rolled metal in 2020.
Iran, under pressure from US sanctions, is also forced to sell its cargo of billets at reduced prices, which is changing the dynamics of the steel billet markets.
Elsewhere in the world, emerging markets in South and Southeast Asia (India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Vietnam) have increased their shipments of scrap imports over the past few years. This has created new and encouraging opportunities for suppliers around the world, and has the potential to put Asia forward as a new benchmark for marine scrap steel supplies.
Iron ore prices hit a 5-year high following the tragic destruction of the Vale dam in Brazil, prompting many producers to switch to scrap steel.
Further tightening of emission standards in China in 2017 led to the fact that due to tight controls, hundreds of small businesses were closed. This has sparked a sharp increase in interest in the use of electric arc furnaces (EAFs) in steel making, which in turn has led to an increase in the price of graphite electrodes (GE), as the main raw material with no other substitutes.
All these issues will be discussed by experts at the 4th Trade Summit on Steel Scrap, Billets and Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) in conjunction with the 2nd Global Conference on Graphite Electrodes in Bangkok on August 27-29, 2019.
