Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to lower both its rebar list price and buying price for locally-sourced scrap over June 30-July 3 due to the weakness of global scrap markets and the negative sentiment in the local steel market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
The mini mill in Taiwan postponed its weekly pricing meeting till Tuesday instead of Monday this week so it could learn more about local and global steel market conditions following the Dragon Boat Festival public holiday over June 25-26.
With the latest adjustment, for business till this Friday Feng Hsin’s price for 13mm dia rebar has been cut to TWD 14,800/tonne ($503/t) ex-works, lower by TWD 400/t on week. At the same time its procurement price for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap slides to TWD 7,100/t after the two cuts made in the past one week, with the total decrease reaching TWD 500/t compared with that before the festival.
“The major driver for our price cuts is the decline in global scrap prices,” the Feng Hsin official explained.
As of June 30, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, a key reference price for Taiwan’s scrap and rebar markets, witnessed a decline of $10/t from the previous week’s 4.5-month high to $240/t CFR Taiwan, while the Japanese H2 scrap price slipped continuously to $245/t CFR Taiwan, lower by another $15/t from one week before, a local source in Taiwan said.
The weakness in the global scrap market bred negative sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market, Mysteel Global learned. “Our rebar sales shrank significantly last week, as buyers were in no hurry to replenish on noting that globally, scrap prices were softening,” the official commented.
He predicted that rebar transactions in Taiwan were likely to remain lackluster this week despite the decline in prices. However, “we are not worried about sales as we have a lot of orders on hand for delivery at the moment,” he disclosed.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel global and SteelMint Research.
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