Rising trend in local Chinese semi-finished steel market

During the week ending March 21, Chinese domestic semi-finished steel prices have indicated a rising trend, while transaction activity in the market has slackened from medium to low-to-medium levels during the course of the week. Average prices of steel billet and slab in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.
 
In the first half of the past week, domestic semi-finished steel prices indicated a rising trend. However, in the latter part of the week, with the prices corrections seen in the futures markets, purchases of semi-finished were slacker and downstream users have been more cautious about concluding purchases due to the relatively high levels of prices, resulting in low-to-medium transaction activity. It is thought that semi-finished steel prices in the Chinese domestic market will likely move sideways in the coming week.

All prices are ex-warehouse and on actual weight basis and include 17 percent VAT.
 
$1 = RMB 6.90