In spite of China’s supervision and control, the price of Australian iron ore is still rising, hitting a new high this year and over the past 18 months. Due to the stable price of international iron ore and coal, the production cost of hot-rolled steel remains high.

The continuous increase in iron ore prices last week was mainly due to the rising carbon steel futures price in China, while hot metal production and steel mill utilization rates are slowing down on account of the cold weather and the off-season.

In terms of coking coal, the market supply has been slightly tightened because of the successive occurrence of accidents in the mining areas of Shanxi and Heilongjiang, China, so the current price remains stable.