Some East Asian mills have offered lower priced HRC and CRC to Southeast Asia; the prices quoted are US$450/ton for HRC, and US$550/ton for CRC.
In East Asia, Japan and Korea, steel demand dropped substantially in the last half of 2008. Although they cut output, demand is quite sluggish, causing the stock level to rise.
The mills decided to discount the price in order to get orders from Southeast Asia. They even decided to export to the Middle East at the lower price. Source: Yieh.com