The association said that while the worst of the COVID-19 demand destruction was over for the passenger car market, downward pressure still lay ahead due to decreased household incomes and the risk of a pandemic resurgence at home and abroad.
CPCA expected China's car retail sales in July to edge higher on a year-on-year basis but be lower than in June as sales promotions by local governments and car retailers gradually came to an end.
Steel traders said that while infrastructure-related China's domestic manufacturing sector continued to recover in July, benefiting HRC and plate, there was little sign of improvement in CRC demand from car makers.
As a result, the spread between the domestic prices of CRC and HRC in the Shanghai spot market narrowed to Yuan 365/mt mid-week from Yuan 390/mt ($56/mt) in late June, S&P Global Platts data showed.
