Taiwan: Feng Hsin holds rebar offer, lifts scrap price by $7/t

• Rebar sales remain weak amid subdued construction demand
• Mill hikes scrap prices despite stable imported tags in Taiwan

Mysteel Global: Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer, has decided to hold its rebar list price for business discussions over 3-7 November, while it has decided to raise its buying price for local scrap by TWD 200/tonne (t) ($7/t) for transactions this week, according to a company official.

With the latest adjustment, the Taiwanese mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 16,200/t ($524/t) exw for business negotiations till this Friday, while its buying price of local HMS 80:20 scrap reaches TWD 8,000/t ($259/t), the official confirmed.

The mini-mill hiked its buying price of local scrap to attract more deliveries of this feedstock, though tags of global scrap delivered to Taiwan remained largely stable, Mysteel Global noted.

As of 3 November, the price of US-sourced HMS 80:20 stood at $300/t CFR Taiwan, being unchanged since late September. There was no quotation for Japan-origin H2 scrap over the past week, a local market source in Taiwan said.

However, Feng Hsin’s rebar list price still lacked the impetus to rise, pressured by weak rebar sales amid the still-depressed end-user demand on the island.

Rebar prices in the Chinese mainland have also seen the signs of weakening recently, as macro sentiment cooled gradually and downstream demand shrank further entering November — a traditional off-season for construction steel consumption in China, Mysteel Global learnt.

As of 3 November, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at RMB 3,245/t ($455/t), including the 13% VAT, falling by RMB 20/t ($3/t) from the recent high on 30 October, though it was still RMB 11/t ($2/t) higher compared with one week earlier.

Construction steel sales in the spot market also slowed, with the combined daily trading volume of rebars, wire rods, and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel’s tracking down 6% w-o-w to average 99,261 t/day over 28 October-3 November.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.