Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and local scrap buying price for transactions over January 18-22, even though scrap prices in the global market declined significantly last week, a company official told Mysteel Global on Tuesday.
For this week, the mini-mill headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,900/tonne ($711/t) EXW for sales till this Friday, unchanged for the second week, while its buying price for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap hovers at TWD 11,200/t, according to Feng Hsin’s official.
As of January 18, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap in Taiwan had dropped by $20/t on week to $432/t CFR Taiwan, the first on-week fall since mid-October, the official said. That for Japan-origin H2 scrap continued its downward trajectory to reach $435/t CFR Taiwan, making for a larger decrease of $22/t from one week before.
“Although global scrap prices declined markedly last week, the spread between international and local scrap prices is still reasonable for the time being,” the official explained, adding that mini-mills in Taiwan are waiting and watching market trends.
Now is the traditional peak season for steel consumption in Taiwan as most construction contractors will work until the last working day before the Chinese New Year holiday over February 10-16 in Taiwan, Mysteel Global learned.
“Our shipments (of rebar) to end-users remain normal thanks to their steady consumption, but they (end-users) have slowed down their pace of placing new orders after seeing the weakness of the global scrap market,” Feng Hsin’s official said.
Market participants in Taiwan believe that scrap prices globally may soften further in the coming term on expectations of a recovery in supply. “Some mini-mills here may lower their rebar offering prices later if the decline in global scrap prices continues,” he added.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint Research.
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