Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has again decided to cut its list prices for rebar and buying prices for local-sourced scrap, reducing both by a further TWD 800/tonne ($29/t) respectively for the business over February 1-5. The reductions are mainly in response to the sustained sharp fall in global scrap prices, a company official told Mysteel Global on Tuesday.
The mini-mill had lowered its buying price for local scrap by TWD 500/t effective last Thursday, so Monday’s decrease of TWD 300/t takes its total on-week drop to TWD 800/t, the official disclosed, and the total decline over the prior two weeks to a large TWD 1,900/t.
With the latest adjustment, Feng Hsin’s buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap drops to TWD 9,300/t for deliveries till this Friday, the official confirmed. At the same time, the mill’s list price for 13mm dia rebar comes to TWD 18,300/t for sales till Friday, lower by TWD 1,600/t compared with the recent high recorded two weeks earlier, Mysteel Global learned.
Scrap prices in global markets have posted sharper losses over the past week, aggravating the negative sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market and dragging down the prices of local scrap and rebar selling prices.
As of February 1, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap in Taiwan was assessed at $370/t CFR Taiwan, falling by another $30/t on week or by $82/t over the past three weeks, Mysteel Global learned. The price for Japan-origin H2 scrap had plunged by $42/t on week to S358/t CFR Taiwan, making for a total decline of as much as $100/t compared with the recent high seen at the start of this year.
“Many steel end-users in Taiwan have slowed their pace of buying long products after noting the persistent weakness in global scrap markets,” Feng Hsin’s official said. “For us, this led to the substantial decrease in our new orders for rebar last week.”
However, the company’s deliveries to local building contractors remain normal for the time being as most construction companies in Taiwan will likely remain in operation till the last working day before the Chinese New Year holiday over February 10-16, Mysteel Global learned.
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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