Steel prices continue to decline, downstream industries are bullish

Affected by the international financial crisis, the global steel market has been filled with price fluctuations. According to data from the London Metal Exchange, since the fourth quarter of 2011, global steel prices have continued to decline. By February 2012, the billet price had dropped from US$700/tonne in August last year to below US$500, a decrease of more than 30%, far below the US$1,000/tonne during the peak period in 2008.

A report released by Merrill Lynch in December last year showed that steel prices will continue its downward trend this year. The report predicts that in 2012, the price of hot-rolled sheet steel coils will drop from US$749 per ton last year to US$709.

However, in the second half of 2011, although the steel price in the Gulf region also fluctuates, it remains relatively stable overall. It is expected that steel demand will rebound in 2012, and global production will increase by 4.4% compared with the same period of last year, reaching the highest historical 1.56 billion yuan. Ton. Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and southern Africa will all become major markets that drive demand for steel. To this end, both BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto Mining have announced new large-scale projects to meet demand growth, indicating that the industry is confident in the medium and long-term markets. Iron and steel, like die steel, die steel can be divided into cold work die steel, hot work die steel. Hot work die steel H13, cold work die steel Cr12MoV, Cr12, D2.

The analysis pointed out that the steel market base in the Gulf region is still strong. The abundant revenue brought by high oil prices, the government infrastructure projects that have been continuously launched, the booming contract engineering market, and the preparation and construction of the Qatar World Cup in 2022 will all promote regional steel demand. Growth, and increase price levels in the medium to long term. Although the Gulf countries have limited mineral resources, the Gulf countries are located in major steel markets, such as Asia and Oceania, South America, Africa, and Other iron ore producing areas. They have unique geographical advantages, and have sufficient energy, convenient port transportation, finance, The abundant technology and labor resources make it an ideal place for steel processing and transshipment. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries have taken aim at the steel downstream industry in order to make full use of this advantage and diversify their economy. They hope to develop into the main force of the industry in the next few years. Many local steel producers also have good expectations for demand growth, especially focusing on emerging markets in the Middle East and Asia as development priorities and actively developing the steel processing industry.

At present, the steel project market in the Gulf region is still in recovery. Relevant statistics show that the total investment in steel projects in the region is about 58.2 billion U.S. dollars, 41% of which are currently in the implementation stage, 35% of projects are still in the research or design stage, and 24% are in suspension or have been cancelled. . The progress of project implementation depends to a large extent on the contract award status and budgets of various governments. Judging from the current situation, most of the projects are in good operation, and the development of steel projects in the Gulf region as a whole shows an upward trend.

It is not difficult to see from the status quo of the development of the steel industry in the Gulf region that many countries in the region have focused their development goals on downstream steel processing and production. In Saudi Arabia, at the end of 2011, the government contracted a contract for the construction of a 500,000-ton steel bar processing plant in Jizan. Subsequently, in February 2012, Saudi Arabia issued a bidding document for the construction of a large steel plant with a total investment of 3 billion U.S. dollars in King Abdullah’s Economic City. In Qatar, Siemens VAI, Austria’s largest steel company, received a 1.1 million tonne steel plant construction contract in March 2011. At the same time, Qatar Steel has also confirmed the final contractor list for its expansion project at Mesayde Steel. Emirates Steel is currently looking for a contractor for the third phase of the Musafa Steel expansion project to build a flat steel processing plant with an annual output of 1.4 million tons. The second phase of the expansion project of the Musafa Steel Plant has invested 650 million U.S. dollars. The project has been completed by the end of 2011. The total investment for the third phase is US$800 million. In addition, in September this year, a new steel plant will be completed in Bahrain.