In 2023, China completely ended the impact of Covid-19, and after the Spring Festival, Huayang Steel Pipe fully resumed work and production. The production and sales volume in the first quarter of 2023 reached 390,000 tons, a year-on-year increase of 18.18%, and the sales revenue reached 358 million US dollars. Huayang currently has 10 ERW steel pipe production lines and 3 LSAW steel pipe production lines, of which 5 ERW steel pipe productions lines and 1 JCOE LSAW steel pipe production line can fully meet the standard of API 5L PSL1 & PSL2 oil and gas pipeline transportation.

Huayang steel pipe was officially recognized by Petrobras as a Qualified Supplier and obtained the Certificate of Registration (CRC No.: 7000192757-0) on March 2nd 2023. Huayang Steel Pipe adheres to scientific development, innovation, and upgrading, and continuously accelerates the pace of certification of international oil companies to help the vigorous development of world oil and gas transmission construction.

In order to further facilitate personnel exchanges, China implemented the following policies from 15 March 2023:

1. Foreign nationals holding valid visas issued before 28 March 2020 are allowed to enter the mainland of China.

2. Visa-issuing authorities abroad could accept applications of all categories of visas for foreign nationals.

3. Port visa authorities will resume issuing all categories of port visas complying with statutory reasons.

4. Resuming Hainan visa-free policy, the visa-free policy specified for foreign cruise-group-tour through Shanghai Port, Guangdong visa-free policy specified for foreign tour groups from Hong Kong or Macao SAR, and Guangxi visa-free policy specified for foreign tour groups of ASEAN countries.

The liberalization of the Covid-19 policy and the adjustment of this policy helped Huayang Steel Pipe International Trade Department to have more than 20 foreign customers visit in March, which laid a good foundation for our company to further expand overseas markets.

The overall market showed a shock adjustment in March, especially the strong pull market in mid-march by the policy impact, raw material’s price increasing, insufficient funds for downstream sites, lead to the extension of the construction time. The demands for welded pipe could be released gradually, the overall demand is still in a weak operating station. The domestic construction steel market prices rise first and then suppress.

The state has introduced a series of economic policies to revive the market, [the People's Bank of China decided to lower the 2023 reserve requirement of financial institutions on March 27] the People's Bank of China decided to cut the reserve requirement of financial institutions by 0.25 percentage points on March 27 (excluding those institutions that have already reserve requirement 5%) after the announcement of the RRR cut. After the revision, the weighted average reserve requirement of financial institutions was about 7.6 percent, bring the market with greater confidence. In the short term, steel prices are still with the strong support. The steel market is expected to operate in a volatile manner.