Taiwan: Feng Hsin holds rebar, scrap prices steady ahead of CNY

• Global scrap prices trend upward
• Demand weak ahead of nine-day holiday

Mysteel Global: Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hold its rebar list price and buying price of local scrap for transactions over 9 February 9-13 February to monitor the market changes, according to a company official.

For business discussions till this Friday, the Taiwanese mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm-diameter rebar at TWD 16,900/tonne (t) ($536/t) EXW, being unchanged on week after the TWD 300/t ($10/t) rise over the previous week, and its buying price for local HMS 80:20 scrap stays at TWD 8,600/t ($274/t), the same level as late January, the official confirmed.

While prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan have firmed up further lately, Feng Hsin is still in no hurry to adjust its rebar list price and buying price of local scrap this week amid the wait-and-see market sentiment prevailing in the local steel market as the Chinese New Year (CNY) is just around the corner, Mysteel Global learned.

The Feng Hsin official confirmed that Taiwan will have a nine-day CNY holiday which starts on 14 February.

As of 9 February, the price of US-sourced HMS 80:20 scrap was reported at $319/t CFR Taiwan, rising steadily since the start of January by $3/t on week, while that of Japan-origin H2 scrap gained by $10/t from two weeks earlier to reach $327/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source in Taiwan.

Rebar prices on the Chinese mainland remained weak amid thinning demand at the start of this week, as the domestic steel market turned quiet when most end-users left the market ahead of the CNY holiday over 15 February-23 February.

As of 9 February, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm rebar-an indicator of domestic steel-market sentiment-was assessed by Mysteel at RMB 3,304/t ($478/t) including 13% VAT, edging down by RMB 6/t on the week.

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