BRIC countries buoy steel prices

The price of hot rolled steel coil (HRC), steel rebar and plate has risen in 2008, in spite of slow demand from the US auto and construction sectors. Demand is increasingly being driven by large scale investment in infrastructure from emerging markets. Chris Palmer, head of global emerging markets at Gartmore, said: "In addition to rising demand from BRIC countries, major steel producers are also enjoying better pricing power, as a result of two major factors. The first is capacity utilisation, where the global steel industry is running at around 95pc utilisation rates or higher. The seco...