On April 19, Hebei Province-based Chinese steelmaker Hebei Iron and Steel Group Co. stated that in the first quarter of the current year the orders received by its subsidiary Handan Iron and Steel Co. (Hansteel) for steel sheet for application in home appliances amounted to 48.618 mt, up 12.5 percent year on year. Meanwhile, another Hebei Steel Group subsidiary Tangshan Iron and Steel sold 138,700 mt of structural steel in the first quarter this year, up 4.13 percent on year-on-year basis. In addition, Tangshan Steel's orders received for welding wire so far in April have exceeded 20,000 mt, more than double the welding wire orders it received in the corresponding period of April last year.
In addition, in the first quarter this year Hebei-based Chinese steelmaker Chengde Iron and Steel Co., another subsidiary of Hebei Steel Group, exported 29,000 mt of finished steel, exceeding the total export volume recorded in the whole of last year, In particular, rebar accounted for 26 percent of the export volume in the first quarter.