The import market for flat-rolled steel came to a stop in South America in the week to Thursday April 1, with mills in China mills mostly withdrawing from exports, or refraining from offering to the region.
The trigger for this was the doubt in the East Asian country about its final decision on an export tax rebate cut, market participants told Fastmarkets.Rumors of the Chinese export tax rebate for steel products being reduced from the current 13% dominated the market in March. Because of that, clients had to satisfy their needs for some May-shipment material elsewhere -...