Earlier this week, Russian steelmaker Evraz (LON:EVRE) dropped with fellow metals producers as the FTSE 100 hit a two-week low.
According to a report from the Financial Times, Evraz stock dipped 4.5% Monday over fears that it could be negatively affected by steel prices trending lower. Since last week, Evraz shares have dropped 17%.
Analyst Andrey Lobazov told clients Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service announced last month it was investigating steel makers throughout the country over their domestic pricing of rebar, which has skyrocketed 80% over the past year. The thought is the investigation will lead to lower rebar prices.
“Miners led the wider market lower as the threat of higher US interest rates put metals prices under pressure,” wrote Bryce Elder for the news source.
US Steel Prices Dip
According to a report this week from MetalMiner, U.S. flat-rolled steel prices have fallen $20-40/ton in August thus far. The reason? James May writes:
“While we don’t expect freefall just yet, we do expect HRC prices to be back in the high $300s/ton at some point next year.”
It’s becoming clear that anti-dumping duties may not be having their desired effect. May added: “While demand is flat, supply is on the increase. The high prices mean strong profitability and therefore domestic mills will maximize output. Meanwhile, the arbitrage is strong enough to justify shipping to the U.S. and there are enough holes in the anti-dumping duties to allow material in.”