Although major domestic producer Baosteel has raised its HRC prices for April delivery by RMB 150/mt ($23/mt), prices of HRC products in the Chinese domestic market have continued to move down. Traders have told SteelOrbis that transaction activity is not good due to sluggish demand from downstream industries and they expressed the view that HRC market prices may decrease further in the short term.
Meanwhile, traders' HRC inventories are not at high levels, while other major Chinese steelmakers may follow Baosteel's example in increasing their ex-works prices for April delivery, and these factors could provide a certain amount of support for HRC prices in China.
Overall, it is thought that Chinese domestic HRC prices will move sideways in the coming week.