The 2009 ferrosilicon contract price on ZCE closed at 5774 yuan per ton on May 14.

In early May, the social inventory of 5 varieties of steel in 20 cities was 14.98 million tons.

The producer price index (PPI), which measures costs for goods at the factory gate, fell 3.1 percent year-on-year in April, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

In the week ending on May 9, 2020, domestic raw steel production was 1,204,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 53.7 percent.

In the week ending on May 10, 2020, the steel products price showed a minor recovery.

The 2009 ferrosilicon contract price on ZCE closed at 5834 yuan per ton on May 13.

Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor has projected that its global car sales will fall by 22pc from a year earlier to 7mn units during the April 2020-March 2021 fiscal year on expectations that the global car market will bottom out during April-June.

In early May, key steel mills produced 20.5169 million tons of crude steel, 18.4871 million tons of pig iron.