Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, central Taiwan, has decided to lower its rebar list prices and procurement prices for locally-sourced scrap again, slashing these by TWD 300-400/tonne ($10.1-13.5/t) for transactions over May 9-13 to reflect falling global scrap prices, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
With the latest adjustment, the mini-mill’s list price for 13mm dia rebar reaches TWD 23,800/t EXW for business transactions till this Friday, down for the third week by another TWD 400/t from the previous week, according to the official. The steelmaker’s buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap has been trimmed by another TWD 300/t on week to TWD 13,500/t, he added.
Feng Hsin’s latest price cut is mainly to reflect the substantial fall in global scrap prices and negative sentiment in the local steel market, Mysteel Global was told.
As of May 9, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap came in at $475/t CFR Taiwan, down another $35/t on week or slumping by a total $105/t over the past 1.5 months, according to a local market source. Meanwhile, the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap had decreased for the fifth straight week by $5/t on week to reach $535/t CFR Taiwan.
Local market participants were not so confident about Taiwan’s finished steel prices in the near term after noting the continuous drop in global scrap prices. At the same time, the lackluster demand and softening steel prices in China also aggravated the pessimism in Taiwan’s steel market, Mysteel Global learned.
For example, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel’s assessment slipped for the third consecutive day to Yuan 5,020/tonne ($747/t) including the 13% VAT as of May 9, lower by Yuan 122/t from that on May 5, the first working day after the Labour Day holiday.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an exchange agreement between MySteel Global and SteelMint.
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