Sharp Decline in Chinese HRB Price

Steel

The Chinese domestic price for hot rolled band fell by $33/t in the two weeks to 26 April to a six-month low of $371/t, according to the latest SteelBenchmarker from World Steel Dynamics. As a result, the Chinese HRB price is now at the largest discount, $139/t, to the world export price since March 2011. There was a smaller $9/t decline in the US HRB price over the same period to $704/t while, by contrast, the Western European HRB price increased by $6/t to $580/t.