A businessman says small manufacturing firms in the Black Country are at risk because of the soaring cost of steel.

Robert Marshall, who runs J H Marshall Pressings, said the Wolverhampton firm and its competitors were having to pass the cost on to customers.

He said it meant customers of his and other metal component firms were buying abroad and would continue to do if the cost of steel kept rising.

The demand for steel and its production cost are contributing to the increases.

Mr Marshall said: “One by one these customers are feeling the pinch and saying look we like doing business with you but we are finding it easier or cheaper to get stuff from abroad.”

The global market for steel has been growing, with especially strong demand from developing countries such as China as they embark on large industrial and building projects.

The rising cost of transport, fuel and raw materials has also hit production costs.

Most steel users are supplied by stockholders and service centres rather than by the steel manufacturers. They themselves are being “between a rock and a hard place”. The steel producers are taking a strong line on steel prices and the end users are trying to resist as far as possible. Whilst steel has risen globally the cost of components manufactured outside of the west can be even more attractive to buyers, putting many European and American manufacturers at risk. 

China’s top steelmaker Baosteel has announced that it will suspend color coated steel exports in June and July 2008 to meet the country’s internal demand mainly from regions hit by the earthquake.

Besides export suspension, Baosteel will also negotiate with domestic buyers to suspend shipments to August 2008.

It will also keep color coated steel price firm despite jumping production costs.

Baosteel official said “More color coated steel supply is BaoSteel’s biggest support to the quake hit regions. The steelmaker has signed supply contract of 38,000 tonnes with 10,000 tonnes put into production in advance.”

The released added that Chinese government has ordered to construct 1 million pre fabricated houses in Sichuan meet the needs of the quake survivors and Baosteel is responsible for the supply of color coated steel.

Baosteel decided to donate color coated sheet houses valuing CNY 50 million in the first lot after the earthquake which will consume 3000 tonnes of color coated steel.

lately i got a lot of request about china steel market.
firstly I highly recommand that you keep your eye on the china tag of this website .http://supplier-steel.com/tag/china
I have not got the time to produce a full report. here is something to share for the time.
as known the ironstone of china is mainly import from other contry, china import the iron stone process them to steel and export them.but so far the smithery of china is not so advanced, so most high level steel is mainly import other contry. but the low level steel like construction used steel bar steel plate is largely exported to other contry.
At year 2008, chinese gorvernment launch many policy which is negitive for steel export like no tax refound for steel export.the reason why china goverment do that is steel industry is not quite enviromental friendly and also is cost a lot of energy of china like coal. the steel export speed increase 110% from 2005-2006, increased 90%  2006-2007. this speed is way to fast for chinese goverment.  in long term, the steel export amount tend to low down. chinese goverment will encourage other product export with more value add. like car part export , or salor 

Sky-high production costs, strong demand and tight supplies have pushed global steel prices to new highs so far this year, but a correction may be on the way towards the end of this year, analysts say. Global steel prices have risen by 40 percent so far in 2008 as an export tax in China has halted supplies out of the country, squeezing the world market. Production costs have more than doubled, with the price of key steel making ingredients such as coking coal and iron ore ore having risen by 300 percent and at least 65 percent respectively. Major steel producers have managed to pass on their rising costs to their customers. ArcelorMittal for example has raised its prices several times in the last four months. Analysts say there’s still room for prices to climb higher, but then a bumpy rise might be at the door. “At the moment most indicators we track are suggesting tight fundamentals and possibly higher prices,” said Neil Buxton, analyst at industry consultants GFMS. Buxton explained the reasons for higher prices as “cost pressures, lower exports for some products from China as well as surprisingly strong demand conditions”. Citi has recently raised its 2008 average hot rolled coil (HRC) and rebar benchmark price estimates both by more than 14 percent to reflect the cost increases of iron ore, coking coal and scrap prices. “Underlying steel demand is expected to remain solid for at least H1 2008,” the Bank said. “However, we believe current steel demand is partly driven by inventory re-stocking, as distributors and other consumers anticipate higher prices related to raw material cost increases.” Despite the short-term upbeat outlook, analysts say the honeymoon could soon be over