In this month's report we look at how steel and raw materials prices have remained strong in November as coking coal supply remains tight and steel inventories low. Beijing has tried to cool prices by cracking down on speculators but this had limited effect.

A key reason is that the market has just come out of a strong October when increasing real estate prices finally began to have a meaningful impact on demand and infrastructure and automotive continued to outperform. Our end users section breaks down the details by sector and their contribution to steel demand so far this year.

Jumping ahead to early 2017, trader restocking is likely to be a key factor in pricing. Our prices section looks at historical trends and the latest information on the market to assess when, and by how much, traders will restock in the coming weeks.

The question now is, are traders willing and able to restock sufficiently to trigger another jump in steel prices?