Has the rise in steel prices already ended?

May was the fifth consecutive month of rising steel prices. However, along with this, steel production in China continued to grow again.

According to the MEPS data, world steel prices reached a record increase in May. MEPS reports that steel prices rose 13.8 percent in May. In the EU, growth was up to 19.3 percent. while in the United States it was 13 percent. Steel prices have also increased in Russia, where there is an increase in demand on the domestic market for the manufacture of stairs, fences, gratings, canopies, awnings, pipelines, shelving, shopping pavilions and other metal structures using welding work on objects of any complexity in Saratov and other cities of Russia.

China, which in recent years has become the locomotive of price changes at metallurgical plants, continues to try to raise prices, but as the cost of production increases, the number of transactions has begun to decline since the beginning of May. China's National Bureau of Statistics reported that steel production in the country began to grow rapidly. The rise in prices has pushed many steel mills to increase production. Steel demand did not change significantly. The reasons for the rise in prices are rather on the supply side. So if China continues to increase production, the value of transactions will fall rapidly.

Some analysts suggest that this should not be a problem for the United States, because it can effectively defend itself with anti-dumping duties, and now the share of Chinese steel in the country's market is only 3 percent. Others, however, believe that if US prices continue to rise, importers will quickly find cheap steel from destinations other than China.

MEPS analysts remind that nothing indicates a significant change in the amount of demand for steel products, which means that the impact of the price increase in the first months of the year will quickly evaporate.