Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list price and buying price for locally-sourced scrap for transactions over October 25-29, given the thin sales in the domestic steel market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
For this week, the mini-mill’s list price for 13mm dia rebar stays at TWD 23,400/tonne ($841/t) EXW, unchanged on week after the TWD 300/t rise over the prior week, while Feng Hsin will continue to pay TWD 12,600/t for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap till this Friday, according to the official. The mill had lifted buying prices for the previous two weeks by a total of TWD 400/t, as reported.
Feng Hsin decided to hold its prices mainly because of the depressed conditions in the local finished steel market, as steel end-users baulk at placing new orders if they are unable to win a discount in actual trading discussions.
“Taiwan’s steel market was very quiet last week,” Feng Hsin’s official admitted. The company had raised its rebar list price and declined to give any discounts to buyers, he explained to Mysteel Global.
Scrap prices in the global market strengthened further over the past week, with that of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap being assessed at $485/t CFR Taiwan as of October 25, higher by another $7/t from one week before, and that of Japan-origin H2 scrap was higher by $10/t on week at $545/t, a local market source said.
This contrasts with scrap price trends elsewhere. For example, scrap prices have started to move down recently in China with the ongoing restrictions on steel output, encouraging Chinese steel mills to cut their scrap buying prices to reduce their production costs in line with softening steel prices, Mysteel Global noted.
Shagang Group (Shagang), China’s leading electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmaker headquartered in East China’s Jiangsu province, trimmed its steel scrap procurement price by another Yuan 50/tonne ($7.8/t) on October 26 with immediate effect, just four days after its previous price cut, as reported.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Leave a Reply