As news reported, international hot-rolled prices continued to soar. No matter in Europe, the US, or Asia, the HRC prices kept breaking the new high records. Even in the Vietnamese import market, the transactions already reached CFR US$1,000/ton, which caused the imported price of slab to rise again.

With the strong demand and material shortage in the global market, it was reported Taiwan's domestic steel mills purchased a batch of imported slab at a very high price level last week.

According to market participants, under the influence of global environmental protection policies, the replacement of old equipment and higher standards of environmental protection became the goal in different countries.

Particularly in China, the cancellation of the export tax rebates for steel products and the strict production reduction policies to promote the environmental protection largely pushed the demand and prices of semi-finished steel products such as billets.

In addition, after the slowdown of the impact of COVID-19, the huge demand appeared due to the economic recovery. It was also the main reason why the steel prices were supported and no sign to go down so far.