Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd (Baosteel) released its steel price policy for April on Tuesday, raising the price of oriented electrical steel by 1,000 yuan per ton. Baosteel says prices for other steel products remained the same, and it also gives discounts of 100 to 200 yuan to some of the general cold and galvanized products, the Oriental Morning Post reported Wednesday.

Wuhan Iron & Steel Group's steel price policy for April also remained almost unchanged except for the price of oriented electrical steel, which was raised by 1,000 to 1,200 yuan per ton.

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The price increase of oriented electrical steel triggered Wuhan Iron & Steel stock prices to go up by 5.98 percent, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co Ltd to increase by 1.66 percent and Angang Steel Co Ltd to rise by 1.49 percent, while most shares on the A-share market were falling Tuesday, the report said.

Oriented electrical steel, also known as oriented silicon steel, is used for the core of transformers, rectifiers and reactors. Japan is one of China's major exporters of steel, especially high-end steel products such as oriented silicon steel. Other exporters include Korea, Russia and the US . The earthquake caused some Japanese steel mills to stop production, which will result in a decrease in its exports.

The report said the quake was just one of the reasons that main domestic producers raised prices. Another reason for the price hike is that in the first year of the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-2015) period, local governments will accelerate investment and construction of smart grid, water projects and electric facilities, which will drive the demand for silicon steel.