A global boom in home appliance sales during the Covid-19 pandemic is causing a shortage in flat steel supplies in China, and in turn supporting prices, Fastmarkets has heard.
Jiang Yuan, deputy director of the Department of Industrial Statistics at the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said that China's output of home appliances including fridges and ovens rose by more than 26% year-on-year in July, "thanks to higher overseas demand because more people are staying at home amid the Covid-19 pandemic."Many Chinese home appliance producers in Guangdong province have full production schedules until early...