The Delta variant is the fastest and the most formidable version of the coronavirus that the world is now encountering, especially the rapid spread in Southeast Asian countries, which caused a big impact on the steel market.

The limited production of steel mills has affected the steel demand of the industries. Meanwhile, the suspension of the large-scale engineering projects made the Southeast Asian steel market even worse.

Although some countries have begun to actively vaccinate, there was no block to the speed of spreading of the virus. In Indonesia, people must work completely at home under the policy of emergency public activity restriction (PPKM Darurat). In Kuala Lumpur of Malaysia, there has been a lockdown since June.

In Thailand, there were some restrictions, but the steel factories were still operating as usual. However, the rapid increase in the number of infected people made the future an unknown situation.

In Vietnam, due to the impact of the epidemic, the steel transaction had a big drop.

Apart from the Delta variant, China announced its limited steel production and its reduction of export policy, which also weakened the ASEAN market, giving room for price downturns.