Baosteel keeps June product prices unchanged

In China, major steelmaker Baoshan Iron & Steel will maintain current prices for its main products in June. The company said it will keep the price of hot coils and cold rolled coils for some brands unchanged.

Cooling economic growth, in line with government plans, and a downturn in the real estate sector negatively affect the demand for steel products from China, the leading producer and consumer of steel in the world. At the same time, the lower manufacturing costs of Chinese firms have boosted overseas demand and increased export orders from Baoshan Iron & Steel.

In addition, Baosteel is the supplier for half of China's automotive steel and has a $ 23.8 billion market capitalization of Nippon Steel. With China's growing auto market, Baosteel is poised to overtake Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp. as the world's largest steel producer by market value.

Shanghai-based Baosteel has more than doubled in local currency since Oct.30, with the Shanghai Composite Stock as a benchmark up 86 percent, Nippon Steel up 14 percent and Posco down 18 percent over the same period. Last week in China, the government-owned asset management organization expanded the number of companies that can list futures, swaps and options overseas without prior approval. A Baosteel spokesman also said the company will look into the matter.