On January 25, Shandong Province-based Chinese steelmaker Rizhao Steel Holding Group Co. announced that in 2012 it supplied a total of 210,000 mt of hot rolled coil (HRC) to Anhui Province-based Chinese steel structure manufacturer Honglu Group, up 30,000 mt year on year. Honglu Group’s total HRC purchases in 2012 amounted to 400,000 mt. Therefore, Rizhao Steel Holding Co. became Honglu Group’s largest supplier of HRC in 2012.
In addition, last December Rizhao Steel successfully produced X60 grade HRC for application in pipelines and supplied 750 mt to Guangdong Province-based Panyu Chu Kong Steel Pipe Co. (PCK). According to Rizhao Steel, the pipeline steel in question has a gross profit margin of RMB 541/mt ($86.7/mt).