According to the latest data from marketmonitoring, on March 15, the national steel inventory index was 170.5 points,down 10% from the same period last year. Among them, the building materialsinventory index was 267.4 points, down 15.3% year-on-year. Affected by manyfactors, the steel demand situation in the second quarter is expected tofurther improve, construction site consumption, manufacturing procurement andexports are expected to be good.

In the second quarter, it entered the peakseason of traditional steel consumption. As the weather gets warmer, outdoorconstruction gradually enters the peak season, and steel demand will graduallyget better. In addition, the approved investment projects have been started,and it is expected that the new construction projects, especially theinfrastructure investment projects, will start to exceed the previous year,which will lead to an increase in steel purchases.