An employee moves molten iron at a furnace in a production area of Baowu Steel Group in Wuhan, capital of Hubei province. [Photo provided to China Daily]

China's steel industry, which has been facing a rough time due to rising inventories and falling product prices due to the novel coronavirus outbreak, is expected to recover rapidly during the second quarter of this year, experts said.

"Many steel companies will slash output as inventories pile up, but a vigorous revival of market demand in the second quarter of this year is expected, given that the Chinese authorities have rolled out a slew of measures to stabilize economic growth and the epidemic hopefully will taper off," said Luo Tiejun, vice-chairman of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association.

The outbreak has disrupted the whole industry chain, including raw material supplies and product transportation, while crimping downstream demand due to prolonged holiday shutdown of factories. This has led to a sharp rise in the current inventories, slump in steel product prices, and a highly probable decline in first-quarter exports that will perhaps see a reverse during April and May, he said.

According to statistics provided by the CISA, steel product inventories of key steelmakers the association surveyed stood at 18.51 million metric tons by early February, up 41.7 percent from late January, and 94.2 percent from early this year.

The China steel price index, issued by the CISA, stood at 100.55 points for Feb 17 to 21, the lowest since early 2019, without an observed start of trading recovery. The figure was respectively down 1.4 points, 4.93 points and 3.31 points from the previous month, and the week before and after the Spring Festival.

International Fastener Show China will be held from June 22 to 24 as scheduled. Under strong novel coronavirus attack, 800 exhibitors keep preparing the prefect fastener equipment and products for show visitors. Fastener equipment purchasers and manufacturers have been lost a lot of opportunities to meet the need of meeting and face to face communication for product details since December 2019.