The steel price continued to go up for the third consecutive day Thursday, statistics released by Xiben New Line Stock showed, ending a three-month continuous decline since mid-April.

About 40 steel producers have decided to raise their prices this week, and the Xiben index, a key index on the market, has increased by 1.83 percent since Monday.

But analysts said the rebound may be temporary. Wang Guoqing, a researcher at Lange Steel Information Research Center, said that the rebound was mainly driven by the fact that the declining price had dropped below the cost, so the producers felt an urge to raise the price.

Thursday, Laiwu Steel's Yongfeng branch announced it would raise the ex-factory price of its major products by 30 yuan ($4.43) per ton, or up 0.8 percent. Kunming Steel raised the ex-factory price of its major products by 40 yuan ($5.90) per ton, or an increase of 0.95 percent. Other small-er mills, like Shuisteel in Liupanshui, Guizhou Province and Chengdu Steel in Sichuan Province, have also increased their prices by about 1.7 percent.

Wang Chongqing, vice president of Beijing-based CERI Fenghuang Industrial Furnace Engineering and Technology, a subsidiary of China Metallurgical Group, said, "With the demand in major steel consumption industries remaining stable, the price increase would not last long."