Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, is lowering its rebar list price by another TWD 500/tonne ($18/t) on week for sales over November 15-19 in response to falling scrap prices globally and the lackluster rebar demand from local end-users, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
With the latest adjustment, the mini-mill’s list price of 13mm dia rebar touches a six-month low of TWD 22,300/t EXW. Feng Hsin had cut its rebar price by TWD 600/t over the prior week, as reported.
The mini-mill did not reduce its scrap procurement price on Monday as the price was trimmed by TWD 300/t on November 13, according to the official. Feng Hsin is still paying collectors TWD 11,700/t for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap.
“The rebar price cut (for this week) was anticipated as scrap prices in the global market have softened further,” a market source in Taiwan said. As of November 15, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap had declined for the third week to reach $460/t CFR Taiwan, lower by another $15/t from one week earlier, and that of Japan-origin H2 scrap had fallen by a sharper $37/t on week to $488/t CFR Taiwan.
In parallel, Taiwan’s rebar demand remained lackluster as local end-users were unwilling to place new orders after noting the fall in prices both in Taiwan and in overseas markets, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, on Monday Shagang Group (Shagang), China’s leading electric-arc-furnace steelmaker, announced its eighth cut to scrap procurement prices since October 22, clipping the buying prices by another Yuan 50/t for deliveries of all grades. Shagang cited the slump in domestic steel prices.
China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar posted another on-week fall of Yuan 236/tonne ($37/t) to a near eight-month low of Yuan 4,759/t including the 13% VAT as of November 15, according to Mysteel’s assessment.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under exchange agreement between MySteel global and Steelmint.
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