Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to cut its rebar list price and procurement price for local scrap by TWD 300/tonne ($9.5/t) respectively on week for transactions over March 4-8, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
With the latest adjustment, the mini-mill is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,400/t EXW for business discussions till this Friday, and its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap reaches TWD 10,700/t, according to the official.
One major reason for Feng Hsin’s price cut was the continuous weakness in the prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan, which has shaken the market confidence in Taiwan to some extent, Mysteel Global was told.
As of March 4, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap declined continuously since late January to $358/t CFR Taiwan, down another $10/t from the previous week, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap also slipped by $3/t on week to $375/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.
Besides, finished steel prices in mainland China continued to move down over the past week with the slower-than-expected recovery in demand from end-users and further accumulation in the inventories at traders’ warehouses, aggravating the negative sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market, Mysteel Global noted.
On Monday, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of its domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,938/tonne ($547/t) including the 13% VAT, falling by Yuan 57/t from one week before.
Mysteel’s latest weekly survey showed that as of February 29, rebar inventories at the commercial warehouses in the 132 Chinese cities Mysteel monitors touched a two-year high of 14 million tonnes, up for the 12th week by another 9.4% on week.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel and BigMint.