In the past week, the Chinese hot rolled coil (HRC) market has moved down by a small margin. Average HRC prices in the main markets in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
With HRC prices approaching the price idea of traders, on May 21 many traders in the Shanghai market purchased large cargoes at around RMB 4,100/mt ($650/mt). With the improved transaction volume, common carbon HRC prices in Shanghai have increased to RMB 4,140-4,150/mt ($657-658/mt). Overall in the Chinese domestic HRC market, a wait-and-see attitude prevails at the current time and some traders have stopped selling materials. In addition, some large steel mills' offers are at even higher levels than traders' offers, and so many traders have reduced their purchase volumes.
It is thought that the Chinese HRC market will likely trend sideways in the coming week.