Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to roll over its rebar list price and buying price for locally-sourced scrap for the third week over June 21-25, despite the firming global scrap market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
For transactions till this Friday, Feng Hsin’s list price for 13mm dia rebar remains at TWD 22,700/tonne ($812/t) EXW (unchanged for over a month), while the mini-mill headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, continues to pay TWD 11,300/t for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap – also unchanged since the end of May, according to the official.
Scrap prices in the global market grew at a faster pace during the past week, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap reaching $460/t CFR Taiwan as of June 21, up another $18/t on week against the on-week rise of $1/t over the prior week, according to local market sources, and that of Japan-origin H2 scrap also gained $10/t on week to $515/t CFR Taiwan.
The fast growth in global scrap prices lent some support to Taiwan’s steel market and improved the sentiment of local end-users to some extent, the official explained. “(But) many end-users still prefer to stay on the sidelines to monitor the market change after noting the weakness in Chinese steel prices,” he admitted.
For example, China’s national price of HRB 400E 20mm dia rebar, a barometer of the country’s spot steel market sentiment, was assessed at Yuan 5,054/tonne ($782/t) including the 13% VAT as of June 21, lower by Yuan 149/t from that on June 15, the first working day after the Dragon Boat Festival, according to Mysteel’s data.
Steel mills in China have also decided to lower their list prices given the slowing demand from end-users and the softening spot prices, Mysteel Global noted. Shagang Group, China’s largest privately-owned steelmaker and biggest rebar producer headquartered in East China’s Jiangsu province, announced on June 21 it was lowering its ex-works prices of rebar by another Yuan 100/tonne for sales over June 21-30. This will make for a total decline of Yuan 950/t over the past month, as reported.
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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