Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and its buying price for locally-sourced scrap over August 31-September 4 to monitor changes in the local steel and global scrap markets, a company official confirmed on Monday.
Therefore, for the business till this Friday, the mini-mill headquartered in Kaohsiung in south Taiwan continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 15,300/tonne ($521/t) EXW, while its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap remains unchanged at TWD 7,600/t. Both prices are at the same level as last week after the on-week increase over the prior week, Mysteel Global notes.
“Our rebar sales were not so good last week because the incessant rainfall in South Taiwan affected activity at construction sites there, resulting in a slowdown in long steel consumption,” the Feng Hsin official explained.
At the same time, as the price trend of scrap in the global market was not very clear, this is encouraging local mini-mills in Taiwan to hold their procurement prices for locally-sourced scrap for the time being, Mysteel Global notes.
As of August 31, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap in Taiwan continued to grow for the eighth consecutive week to $273/t CFR Taiwan, gaining another $3/t on week and refreshing the one-year high. However, the price of Japanese H2 scrap showed some signs of retreating during the same period, reversing down $4/t from one week earlier to $283/t CFR Taiwan after growing consistently for five weeks, a market source in Taiwan said.
Any further increase in price will be hard to be accepted by overseas buyers after the fast uptick during the prior several weeks, a market source in Japan admitted. Scrap prices in Japan strengthened further over the past week as the hot summer has slowed the pace of building demolition work and demand from steel producers has gradually picked up.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint Research.
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