It is reported that oriented silicon steel imports started to fall down from the second half of 2008. Market price kept on sliding with great margin. Both steel makers' EXW prices and market prices went down by over CNY 10,000 per tonne.

As Wuhan Steel and Baosteel cut their EXW prices, imported resources became less competitive. Under such circumstances, many importers began reducing import volume, leading to falling imports. This helped alleviate domestic pressure and market price tended to be stable.

Take 30Q130 oriented silicon steel as an example, price for the steel product hit the ceiling of CNY 47,000 per tonne in August from CNY 37,000 per tonne in January. Then, the price dropped to CNY 45,000 per tonne in October and dived to CNY 38,000 per tonne in November and CNY 34,000 per tonne in December. The imports stayed at some 25,000 tonnes from January to June. The import volume hit the ceiling of 37,000 tonnes in September.

There are still many uncertain factors to affect oriented silicon steel market next year.

(Sourced from www.Mysteel.net)
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