Taiwan Feng Hsin’s rebar, scrap prices remain stable

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and procurement prices for local scrap during business discussions over September 12-16 after raising the two prices continuously over the past four weeks, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

For transactions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 20,900/tonne ($676/t) EXW, and its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged on week at TWD 10,900/t, according to the official.

One major reason for Feng Hsin’s decision was the decrease in prices of global scrap shipped to Taiwan, which encouraged local mini-mills to hold their procurement prices for locally-sourced scrap to monitor the price trend in the coming term, Mysteel Global noted.

As of September 12, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was reported at $380/t CFR Taiwan, reversing down by $5/t on week after growing for four weeks, according to a local market source, and that of Japan-origin H2 scrap posted a sharper on-week fall of $15/t to reach $400/t CFR Taiwan, ending the continuous rise over the prior month.

Accordingly, mini-mills in Taiwan had little alternative but to roll over their rebar list prices this week as local end-users refuse to purchase high-priced products after noting the retreat in global scrap prices.

“To facilitate sales, in the actual business negotiations mills in South Taiwan may make some concession on the basis of their latest rebar list prices,” Feng Hsin’s official told Mysteel Global.

Chinese rebar prices kept rangebound recently due to the overall lackluster demand from end-users, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel’s assessment reaching Yuan 4,135/tonne ($598/t) including the 13% VAT as of September 9, gaining Yuan 34/t from one week before.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.