According to information obtained by a source, Baoshan Iron & Steel of China seems to have noticed late last week its domestic prices of steel tinplates for March shipment to each customer. It is known that the company left prices of tinplates to high quality unchanged while raised prices of those for general use by CNY 200 . Similarly, its subsidiary Meishan Iron & Steel took a step to raise its prices of tinplates by CNY 150 CNY.

Baosteel's notification of tinplate prices had been done usually the time close to the end of a month. It was in the middle of the month being unusually fast this time. The company is seen to have noticed last week in order to receive early orders for March shipment before Chinese New Year, from expectation of a price rise of steel products including tinplates from March onward and so on.

Baosteel raised its domestic prices of hot rolled steel coils by CNY 80 for February shipment. Such HR coils are used as materials to produce tinplates by so called private tinplate mills. In order to counteract this, Baosteel is seen to have raised prices of tinplates for general use.