Integrated steelmaker China Steel Corp (CSC), headquartered in Kaohsiung, South Taiwan, is calling on other steel mills to work with it to maintain stability in steel supplies and prices so as to aid the steady recovery of the local economy despite the latest wave of the coronavirus, according to a petition released by CSC on June 3.
“Recently, downstream industries have been complaining that some local steel mills have been playing up the prices by gauging or hoarding,” CSC pointed out. “This is not only against CSC’s long-held principle to take into account of any hardships that steel-consuming industries have been facing, but it is also undermining the competitiveness of the local steel mills in general.”
As a countermeasure, CSC will cooperate with Taiwan Iron & Steel Industries Association in building up a communication platform to share market information with the downstream industries whenever necessary, and the largest steel mill in Taiwan also promises to adjust its supply to the local market when needed to help maintain market order.
The situation resembles what steel-consuming industries in mainland China have experienced in the past month, Mysteel Global notes. In reaction to loud complaints from the steel-using industries such as home appliance makers, starting May 12, China’s central government repeatedly warned about the too-high prices of bulk commodities. Beijing’s warnings caused China’s rebar and hot-rolled coil prices series to slump by over Yuan 1,000/t ($156/t) over May 13-27, as reported.
“We are fully aware the importance for the downstream industries to operate sustainably, which is not only in their interests, but ours too, so even though the prices are on the rise, we always make a conscious effort to adjust our prices reasonably and step by step, making the rises bearable for our end-users,” a CSC official once said to Mysteel Global.
CSC has been raising both its monthly and quarterly prices gradually since last August due to rising costs in steelmaking raw materials such as iron ore and coal, as well as logistics and warehousing, as reported.
Normally for CSC, usually 70-72% of its steel products are sold locally, though for 2020, local sales took a lower 66% of the 10.1 million tonnes of finished steel the Kaohsiung company sold. The easing of local sales was due to the demand declines because of the COVID-19 outbreak, and until the end of last March, the portion was still about 65%, Mysteel Global noted.
Written by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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