Sentiment in the domestic steel industry remains on the negative side in June following the sharp turnaround in May, according to the latest findings of our proprietary survey of one hundred steel industry participants. Mills saw slower sales for both domestic and export markets, and a decline in profitability should lead to lower capacity utilisation for the coming month.
Steel inventory retreated in traders’ warehouses but picked up at steel mills, and as that weighed on working capital, mills continued to draw down iron ore and coking coal inventories and have no intention to restock raw materials.
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David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific’s leading geo-politics and economics portal.
He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.
