Taiwan’s largest rebar producer Feng Hsin Steel, headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to cut its rebar sales prices by TWD 500/tonne ($16.5/t) for sales over March 30-April 1 after clipping its procurement prices for its locally-sourced scrap by TWD 300/t last Saturday, a company official confirmed on Monday. The reductions were mainly prompted by the weakening global scrap market and the sparse long-steel sales in Taiwan.
This will be a short working week in Taiwan as the island will be closed on April 2-3 for Children’s Day and Tomb-Sweeping Day, Mysteel Global notes.
With the latest adjustment, the mini mill’s 13mm dia rebar list price has been cut to TWD 14,300/t ex-works after having hovered at TWD 14,800/t for only one week. Feng Hsin’s procurement price for locally sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap has fallen to TWD 6,300/t, according to the mini mill’s official.
The price cut in Feng Hsin’s buying price for locally sourced scrap was mainly to reflect the persistent weakness in global scrap prices, which have been trending downward for four straight weeks so far, the company official explained.
As of March 30, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, a key price reference for Taiwan’s scrap and rebar markets, was assessed at $207/t CFR Taiwan, sliding by another $13/t compared with one week ago and recording a new low since the end of 2016, according to the official. That for Japanese H2 scrap also dropped by $10/t on week to $220/t CFR Taiwan.
Feng Hsin’s rebar sales price witnessed a large week-on-week decrease for the mill’s business till this Wednesday to facilitate sales, Mysteel Global learned. “New orders for long steel have been scarce over the prior several weeks as downstream buyers believed that they could purchase more cheaply after noting the sustained fall in global scrap prices,” Feng Hsin’s official told Mysteel Global.
The mini mill expects that the price cut in rebar may help to bolster the buying interest of construction contractors and improve sales for long steel during this week.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint Research
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