China's major steel maker Wuhan Iron and Steel plans to hike September prices for its products by $ 102-$234 per ton against tags, said a report, citing trade sources.
China's third largest steel mill will increase price of hot-rolled coil by 800 yuan per ton, 21 percent, to 4,540 yuan, while increasing the price of cold-rolled coil by 800 yuan per ton. or 18 percent, to 5,250 yuan, said the report.
China's domestic prices are surging in recent weeks due to strong demand from the construction sector as the economy recovers, although concerns are mounting that prices may be rising beyond what industry fundamentals can support.

Chinese iron ore stockpiles are coming back to more normal levels, said global miner BHP Billiton Ltd, adding a cautious note to its outlook for one of the world's hottest commodities.
The world's third-largest producer of the steel-making raw material BHP Billiton said China, the world lagest steel producer and consumer country, had finished rebuilding its iron ore stockpiles and that port stocks were not setting back to more normal levels, enough to sustain a month of consumption.
Ian Ashby, Head of Iron Ore Operations, BHP Billiton, said in a conference that he remained bullish on the overall for demand for Australia iron ore, noting that the group's operations there were running at full capacity. He also added that shipments continued on schedule, despite market concerns that shipping to China had dropped off in recent weeks. "It's not a matter of not being concerned, but our business is functioning as normal in China. That is fact," Ashby said. "Chinese steel production has recovered quite rapidly -- last month it reached record highs," he added. "Most of this has been due to China's stimulus packages." However, he declined to comment on current price negotiations over iron ore supplies to China and other Asian countries.

Spot imports will account for 83 percent of China's iron ore imports this year, said China Iron and Steel Association in its half-year report.
Chinese mills have not yet settled on an annual price for term iron ore imports, meaning most is being imported on a spot or indexed basis.
Steel production surged in the first half of 2009, while imports also increased as Chinese fixed-asset investment responded to a government stimulus package, said the report.
In the report, CISA reiterated its intent to limit imports to end-users or to trading companies that can prove they have already contracted an end-user, to fight speculative imports.
CISA took over as lead negotiator for the Chinese industry this year in annual price talks with Australian miners Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Brazil's Vale, but has failed to settle due to its insistence on wringing a better deal than the 33 percent drop negotiated by Japanese and South Korean mills.
Ore prices have risen substantially since the Japanese and South Korean settlement.

Baosteel Group Corp, China's biggest steelmaker, is struggling to meet massive demand from automobile and home appliance makers and has pushed production to near record level, said JPMorgan Chase & Co.
“Baosteel is having difficulty meeting the explosive demand from these two industries. Demand from the machinery industry is seeing a steady increase, although exports remain weak. The only area of weakness seen by the company is from the shipbuilding industry.” said Jing Ulrich, Hong Kong based chairwoman of China equities at JPMorgan.

The world's largest steelmaker country China's crude steel production surged in July by 2.16 percent to 50.68 million tons MoM and 12.6 on annual basis.
The country's production of steel products and pig iron in July stood at 60.21 million tons and 48.5 million tons respectively rising by 19.4 percent and 14.6 percent YoY. China's iron ore production reached 76.87 million tons in July up by 15 percent YoY.
An analyst said, “Strong domestic steel product prices drove Chinese steel mills to ramp up production during the month. However, with the recent slide in domestic steel product prices, it is unclear whether China's crude steel output in August can increase on a monthly basis."

South Korean top steelmaker POSCO posted a sharp increase in sales in China in the 2nd quarter thanks for the country's massive economic stimulus measures.
The company said its shipment to China stood at 92,000 tons in the April to June period up from 558,000 tons a year earlier.
“We expect steel has sales in China to continue to increase in the second half of the year." said an official of the company.
The company said it also expects gains from rising steel price, which have increased up to 20 percent recently on the back of rising demand.

Newly discovered iron ore deposit in China's Liaoning province, with reserves estimated at 3 billion tons, could be producing up to 5 million tons by 2015.
A report said that the deposit will need $366 million of investment and will be 20 percent owned by Benxi Iron & Steel Group.
The deposit lies close to the base of Benxi's local rival Anshan Iron & Steel Group.
An official said the deposit could potentially be as big as 7.6 billion tons, making it the world's biggest iron ore mine.

Chinese steel producer Baosteel Group Corporation has withdrawn investment from Handan Iron and Steel Po which now is the one wholly owned by Hebei Iron and Steel Group.
The reason behind the withdrawal is said that the cooperative terms have changed.
Early in May 2007, Handan iron and steel and Baosteel group jointly funded a venture Handan Iron and Steel Po to build a 4.6 million tons base for competitive plate products. The registered capital was 12 billion with taking 50 percent.
According to a report, an analyst said," Baosteel owned half of the interest at the start which prepared as a possibility for it to further control the venture and then penetrate into the overall Handan Group consolidation."
Baosteel has made overall transferring of its held assets of the venture, not only the interests, but investment in the newly launched production lines and equipments. The withdrawal has also left the world a suspicion that whether Baosteel is still the No.1 China's steel producer.

Angang Steel Co, China's second largest steelmaker by value, will post a quarter 3 profits from a loss in the prior period as government spending on infrastructure revives demand.
Profit may be much as CNY 5.69 billion for the three months ending September based on a nine month earnings forecast provided by the Liaoning province based company last night. The mill posted a loss of CNY 1.56 billion smaller than it had forecast for the first six months.
An analyst at Credit Suisse Group AG said “We remain positive about the Q4 demand and expect well supported steel prices.”
Angang rose 1.7 percent to close at CNY 14.13 in Shenzhen, outperforming the 1.4 percent gain on the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index. The shares rose 2.6 percent to HKD 15.66 in Hong Kong. The steelmaker boosted crude-steel production by 11 percent to 9.1 million tons in the first six months from a year earlier. It had forecast a loss of as much as CNY 2.99 billion for the H1.
According to the statement Angang estimated it would post earnings between zero and CNY 4.13 billion for the first nine months of the year, compared with CNY 8.25 billion a year ago. The mill reported a profit of CNY 2.27 billion in the three months ended September 30th a year earlier under domestic accounting standards. The company posted a loss of CNY 1.55 billion for the H1 of this year under international standards.