OREANDA-NEWS. April 09, 2012. Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS) issued the reference prices of construction steel made from its production arms -- Handan Steel, Tangshan Steel, Xuanhua Steel and Chengde Steel ЁC for shipments in early April on March 31.

Unlike from the past, all these plants but Handan only released the quotations of rebar marked with E (Earthquake). There was no mention of ordinary second and third grade rebar on their price lists.

This means anti-quake rebar has overtaken the commodity grade as a main category across the group.

This year Tangshan Steel plans to produce one million tons of such a grade.