China Steel Corp. said that it is still working hard on export orders for the first quarter of 2023. As the market trend improved, it is estimated that 150,000-200,000 tons could be obtained more than in the previous quarter.

In the fourth quarter of this year, it coincided with the energy crisis in Europe, the US interest rate hike inflation, and the Chinese government's lockdown policy to curb demand. Therefore, the procurement of the downstream manufacturing industry is conservative with sluggish demand, which led to weak prices in the fourth quarter.

Some production lines of China Steel Corp. have been under maintenance successively in the third and fourth quarters. The target volume for the third quarter has been revised down to 2.9 million tons, and further down to 2.3 million tons for the fourth quarter.

However, the prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC) and related carbon steels have risen one after another recently, so a recovery in the first quarter of next year is expected.