Since the new crown pneumonia epidemic broke out again in Hebei at the beginning of this year, Hebei Province has continuously tightened its prevention and control measures. Shijiazhuang, Xingtai, and Langfang have successively implemented “cities closures”. Many expressways in the province have been closed and adjacent to provincial expressways. All highways are equipped with cards to strictly prevent and control Ji A and Ji E license plate transportation vehicles. Affected by this, steel companies in Hebei are affected by the shortage of raw materials and fuels, the interruption of transportation of finished steel products, and production restrictions. On January 15, a reporter from China Metallurgical News interviewed Guo Xiaoliang, assistant to the general manager of Delong Iron & Steel, and asked him to make predictions and analyses on the operation of the steel market in Hebei under the epidemic.

Guo Xiaoliang said that the steel industry is an industry-intensive and large-scale industry. The operation of steel enterprises depends on transportation guarantee and needs a strong logistics guarantee system to support it. Under the influence of the epidemic control, the biggest impact on steel companies is poor logistics. At present, the control of traffic flow caused by the epidemic has stuck the "throat" of steel companies and brought certain challenges to the production and operation of companies.

"From the perspective of the current market, the market is currently in the off-season of seasonal demand, and the release of terminal demand is gradually slowing down. The downstream construction in the northern region has basically stagnated. The southern region where demand can still be maintained is also affected by the cooling. "The general trend." Guo Xiaoliang said, "Superimposed on Hebei's strict control of the epidemic, steel companies have a serious inventory backlog of finished products, increased pressure on capital turnover, and continued consumption of raw and fuel inventories. Individual steel companies have reached the low alert inventory status of raw and fuel materials."

At present, the total construction steel inventory in Hebei local and surrounding markets, such as Beijing, Tianjin, and Shijiazhuang, Tangshan, Handan and other regions in Hebei Province, has reached 641,000 tons, an increase of 55,000 tons on a week-on-week basis, an increase of 9.4% . It can be seen that the regional market inventory has begun to increase. Judging from the current situation, the epidemic has basically affected steel companies in Hebei Province and surrounding areas. It is not ruled out that steel companies may reduce or suspend production due to shortage of raw materials and fuels and high inventory pressure.

Guo Xiaoliang predicts that the downward trend in steel prices will still exist in the short term. "If the epidemic continues to spread and the prevention and control of the entire Hebei Province will be further upgraded, the problem of raw materials and fuel and restricted personnel flow may cause the production of steel companies to stagnate, which will affect steel prices and steel supply to a certain extent, and even affect the recovery after the Spring Festival. Production resumes." Guo Xiaoliang believes that the epidemic may affect steel demand in February this year, and even downstream construction in March, but the specific impact depends on the subsequent development of the epidemic. "

In addition, Guo Xiaoliang believes that the current steel prices are generally high, and the emotional disturbance of the epidemic may affect the rhythm of the downstream “winter storage”, which will increase the risk of “winter storage” to a certain extent, and downstream and steel companies will participate in the “winter storage”. The enthusiasm of "reserve" may be suppressed to some extent. In this case, it is not ruled out that steel prices may fall in the short term.

However, in Guo Xiaoliang's view, the overall steel market is still promising. From a national perspective, the current epidemic is only serious in some areas, and the scope of its impact is limited and controllable. In the short term, it will not cause much impact on the supply and demand situation of the national steel market. The future steel market is still promising.