The steel market is a difficult beast to predict  over shorter...

The steel market is a difficult beast to predict  over shorter time frames, with many factors working to influence the price not the least of which is the many types of hedging strategies employed, and the appreciating Chinese yuan.
A few fundamentals that underpin the world vanadium price include;
1) China from now on will  consume at least 50% of the worlds vanadium production,and probably more.( with the trend rising)

2) over 90% of this vanadium is used in steel production.

3) China consumes 96% of this  steel production.( with the trend rising 06/18)
Further, as I’ve suggested in other posts it’s compliance with these new regulations which is highly important. And reports on the ground in China are that these inspections are now underway.
What will also be interesting will be the so called ‘ghost steel industry’. Its estimated that maybe 100 million tonnes of steel production is illegal, possibly 10% of China’s steel production. If this is caught with these new inspections then we can expect that this will have an impact on rates of rebar production.
As well the latest Shanghai figures I have (Jan 10th) have rebar stocks and inventories worsening, down 21.1 and 13.1% respectively from same time last year.
It’s going to be a scramble to secure supply when construction starts up shortly.
It only means it’s going to be a another hectic year again for the vanadium price.....