When Mr Trump imposed 25% duties on steel products in 2018, Brazil swiftly secured a deal, better than any other country. Since then, Brazilian slab producers commanded better margins by piggybacking on Section 232 quota; whereas others, chiefly the CIS producers, suffered. The Trump administration tinkered with the market in a way to allow Brazilian

The new vessel orders in China sank in the first seven months of this year, highlighting the underlying weak demand chiefly caused by the epidemic. The national shipbuilders secured new vessel orders proportionate to around 14 million deadweight tonnes (dwt) during January-July this year, fell by 4.8% year-year basis, according to China Association of the

The impact of the coronavirus outbreak is still high in various parts of the world. In Europe, the steel market is slowly returning to normal in key countries, such as Germany, France and Italy, but it is still far from pre-pandemic levels. Moreover, Eurofer has requested a 75% cut to the import quotas to help

The negative impact of the COVID-19 on the steel market is expected to continue around the world over the next three months. The number of coronavirus cases has been growing rapidly in various countries, such as the US, Russia, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. As a result, we anticipate that finished steel demand is going to

Impact of coronavirus on shipbuilding The global shipbuilding industry has been in doldrums due to the falling demand caused by COVID-19. In the first quarter of 2020, global orders for new vessels declined by 70% year-on-year to nearly 2.4 million compensated gross tonnage (CGT). It is ascertained that investment in the shipbuilding industry also hit

The global electrical steel industry will remain subdued in the short term due to challenges posed by COVID-19. Electrical steel demand is ascertained to have declined in key end-users such as appliances, transformers and automotive. Development works on most renewable projects are placed on hold due to disruptions in the supply chain as countries imposed

Slab prices have nearly hit bottom in April and continued its downward trajectory in almost all major markets. Prices have now very little room for further decline. We expect prices to remain range-bound in the short term before turning the corner in May. Commodity Inside expects that any new waves of the COVID-19 outbreak in

Hubei province, where Wuhan is located, is one of the key steel production hubs in China. The coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan in December 2019. The city became the epicentre of the outbreak, though there are now zero new cases reported. The lockdown in Hubei has now been eased after two months of the