Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to cut its rebar list prices and procurement prices for local scrap by TWD 300/tonne ($9.3/t) on week for transactions over May 6-10, a company official confirmed on Tuesday. The cuts are to reflect lower scrap prices in the global market and thin rebar demand from local steel users, he said.
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 is now at TWD 10,800/t, according to the official.
One major reason for Feng Hsin’s price cut was the weakness in global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan, Mysteel Global was told.
As of May 6, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was reported at $355/t CFR Taiwan, lower by $8/t from the previous week. There was no quotation for Japan-origin H2 scrap over the past week due to public holidays in Japan, according to a local market source.
Mini-mills in Taiwan have had to lower their rebar list prices to facilitate sales recently, as steel end-users are in no hurry to place new orders, the Feng Hsin official, pointing out that buyers expect finished steel prices to soften further with the decrease in prices of steelmaking raw materials.
As for the steel market in mainland China, prices of major steel products have strengthened after the country’s Labour Day holiday over May 1-5, thanks to the better performance of the futures market and the improvement in spot sales, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar in China, a pointer to domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,845/tonne ($533/t) including the 13% VAT as of May 6, the first working day after the five-day break, which was higher by Yuan 31/t compared with that on April 30, the last trading day before the holiday.
On Monday, the most-traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for October delivery ended the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,735/t, higher by Yuan 65/t from the settlement price on April 30.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.