Weekly Review of International Steel Hotspots: Russia remained Turkey’s largest supplier of semi-finished steel products in January. Slab quotations in Southeast Asia dropped significantly (3.1-3.8)

This week, global steel prices continued the downward trend last week, of which semi-finished products and long materials fell sharply, and the decline of sheet metal slowed down. Specifically, because the Chinese government has not yet announced policies to stimulate economic recovery, coupled with weak downstream demand, steel spot prices are difficult to boost. Driven by the decline in China's export prices, prices of semi-finished products and long materials in Asia and Southeast Asia have generally declined, and the market has a strong wait-and-see atmosphere. In Turkey, although the price of export rebar has fallen, some steel mills are still trying to maintain price stability. However, the market is generally expected that scrap prices will continue to decline, and the Turkish long material market will continue to be dragged down. If the demand for imported billets from local buyers continues to weaken, the price of semi-finished products in the CIS region will also be under pressure. In the Middle East market, the price of long wood domestic trade fell slightly due to the impact of high tariffs, while the price of sheet metal remained relatively stable, but the upcoming Ramadan or will restrict its export activities. The Indian long material market is the only bright spot this week, and tight supply is the root cause of this price rise, and whether actual demand can improve will depend on the market situation after the election. Overall, under the influence of oversupply and insufficient demand, it is expected that the international market sentiment will remain depressed in the short term.