From Macquarie’s monthly Chinese steel mills survey:
Sentiment has picked up again in the Chinese steel market according to our latest proprietary survey, helped by higher steel prices since late June. Steel mills reported better orders from both domestic and export markets over the past month, though their capacity utilisation rate was slightly lower. Although July is usually a slow season for steel demand and production, given improved profitability and declining plant inventory, mill interest in raw materials restocking has modestly improved.
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.
