Sharp Fall in Chinese HRB Price

Steel

The Chinese domestic price for hot rolled band (HRB) declined by $26/t in the two weeks to 29 March, dropping to the lowest level since November 2016 at $429/t, according to the latest SteelBenchmarker from World Steel Dynamics. Nevertheless, it remains more than $100/t above the year-ago level. By contrast, the US HRB price edged up by $5/t over the same period to $704/t, rising above the $700/t mark for the first time since December 2014, while the Western European HRB price fell slightly to $608/t.