Kallanish Asia Steel Markets 2018 in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City over 18- 19 April brought together mills, traders and analysts from across the continent and beyond, so this week we are giving over some space to share with you some of the key trends, developments and ideas discussed at the event. That means we’ll be covering China, Southeast Asia and India, and we’ll be talking about capacity investments, trade and raw materials. China’s steel market meanwhile has been strong in the last month, restoring some confidence in prices this year. The appalling demand data for Q1 can be explained by distortions which have pulled demand into Q2. Now that the short term panic is over, we can turn again to the bigger picture.

The question now is, how should the industry react to the growing importance of Southeast Asia?