Carbon steel sales at China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan’s top integrated steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung, South Taiwan, slipped further in February to a seven-year low of 692,704 tonnes, according to the company’s monthly performance release on its website.
CSC’s carbon steel sales dropped for the third consecutive month in February, with the volume down by another 31,521 tonnes or 4.4% from that for January, the release showed.
The on-month fall had been expected, however, as February is the shortest month of the year, and Taiwan’s steel market was closed over January 29-February 6 for Chinese New Year celebrations, Mysteel Global noted.
Besides, the company’s customers were in no hurry to purchase more products as most still need to sell in overseas markets after processing, and the on-going port congestion is causing their stocks at hand to accumulate, putting the end-users under more pressure, Mysteel Global learned.
For February, CSC’s pre-tax profit decreased for the fifth month to TWD 4.2 billion ($147 million), down TWD 1.29 billion or 23.5% on month, with the lower carbon steel sales and the company’s decrease in its steel list prices, according to the release.
To ease the pressure on CSC’s steel users, the steel giant had cut the list prices of its major steel products by as much as TWD 700/t for local sales in February, as Mysteel Global reported.
For the first two months of this year, the integrated mill’s total carbon steel sales came in at 1.4 million tonnes, lower by 194,218 tonnes from the same period last year, while its total pre-tax profits jumped by 30% on year to TWD 9.68 billion, the release showed.
CSC is optimistic about the market in the coming term as the second quarter is traditionally the peak season for steel consumption in Taiwan. This is encouraging the company to lift list prices of its major steel products to partly reflect higher production costs.
For its business over April-June, CSC’s list prices of major steel products have been raised by TWD 1,000-2,400/t, as Mysteel Global reported.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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