At present, China Steel Corp. (CSC)'s first-quarter orders are full, and there is no spare to increase capacity. Therefore, CSC reminded downstream manufacturers to carefully evaluate their demand for the second quarter.

CSC also said that current orders have recovered gradually, although the volume has not grown significantly. In addition, the price of imported hot-rolled coil (HRC) has increased, and the overall market trend is upward.

However, market participants hoped that CSC would consider variables in neighboring Asian countries, including China's economy and South Korea's general election in April, which may cause price fluctuation. Despite the increase in production costs, local distributors still called for CSC's new price to be reasonable.

The Taiwan market is currently supported by demand from the steel structure industry, but demand from the machinery industry is poor. It remains to be seen whether the machinery industry will pick up in the second quarter.