Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hold its rebar list prices and procurement prices for local scrap for transactions over May 20-24, a company official confirmed on Tuesday. The company has now rolled over the two prices for two weeks, Mysteel Global notes.
For the business negotiations till this Friday, the mini-mill’s list price for 13mm dia rebar stays at TWD 19,400/tonne ($600/t) EXW, and it continues to pay TWD 10,800/t for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, according to the official.
Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan remained soft over the past week, aggravating the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market, Mysteel Global was told.
As of May 20, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was reported $348/t CFR Taiwan, slipping by another $5/t from the previous week, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap was still at $365/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.
Taiwan’s rebar sales in the physical market slowed to some extent last week, as end-users were in no hurry to place new orders after noting the global scrap market’s weakness, the Feng Hisn official said.
However, long steel prices in mainland China recovered over the past week, as market sentiment improved with Beijing’s a series of new measures released on May 17 to stabilize the property market. This also boosted steel transactions in the spot market to some extent, Mysteel Global learned.
As of May 20, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar in China, a pointer to the country’s domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,872/tonne ($535/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 55/t on week and hitting the highest since March 8.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.