Pursuits
Steel Resurgence Seen Fizzling as China's Property Market Slows
- Chance of return ‘to where we were a year ago,’ fund says
- Downturn in China’s property cycle seen hurting steel demand
What's Driving the Gains in Iron Ore?
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Steelmakers aren’t out of the woods yet. A year-long rebound risks fading as a slowdown in China’s property market deepens, exposing bullish sentiment as overblown, according to a U.S.-based hedge fund manager and former Citigroup Inc. analyst.
“China’s real estate sector is the biggest X-factor for the steel market globally this year,” Ivan Szpakowski, chief investment officer at Academia Capital LLC, said in a phone interview from North Carolina last week. “We’ve clearly turned the corner into a downward phase of the property cycle, and I do think there is a real risk for steel that we go back toward where we were a year ago.”