[Ferro-Alloys.com] Overall economic situation affected the market of commodities. Since entering 2012, steel mills underperformed. Issues such as closing down outdated facilities became dire needs for the industry. As cored wires had became an irreplaceable raw materials for steel, pressure mounted now for cored wires companies

On one hand, Steel mills cut their outputs, thus purchase reduced for cored wires. At the same time, they require higher qualities for the products, but reluctant to pay in time.

On the other hand, companies engaged in this business are scattered all over the country. They share some common characteristics: slim profit, small-sized, low-standard. For some regions, redundant construction and cutthroat competition featured the industry,

Just take Baotou for instance and we can have an overall picture of the industry. As a key client in local market, Baotou steel & iron group need 2,000 tons of CaSi cored wires and 5,000 tons of FeCa cored wires annually. Due to requirements on factors as payment, quality, price, only a small number of companies can win the bid. For most of them, halting production is the only choice in industry winter.

Now most companies couldn’t run on full capacity, high at 70%, low at 25%. For these stick to the business, they rely on old clients to survive the hard times.

To get through the winter, cored wires companies must diversify their businesses and try hard to develop new kinds of products with low cost and high efficiency.

To boost sale, companies must try hard to tap into oversea market and expand their exports, at the same time, take advantage of internet to better share information.

• [Editor:Zhang Xing]