Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to raise its rebar list prices by TWD 300/tonne ($10.7/t) on week, and its buying prices for locally-sourced scrap by TWD 200/t from the previous week to reflect the growth in global scrap prices, a company official confirmed. The increases are more sedate than the mill’s TWD 700/t hike for rebar last week and its TWD 500/t lift in scrap buying prices, Mysteel Global notes.
With the latest adjustments, Feng Hsin’s list price for 13mm dia rebar reaches TWD 20,400/t EXW for business till this Friday, while the mini-mill is paying TWD 11,000/t for the locally HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, the most generous the firm has been to its scrap suppliers since mid-March.
Feng Hsin’s continuous price hikes were mainly a response to the robust prices of steelmaking raw materials including scrap and iron ore, the company official explained.
As of April 19, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was assessed at $435/t CFR Taiwan, increasing for the third consecutive week and rising by another $20/t on week, a local market source said. But prices of Japan-origin H2 scrap took a pause at the three month-high of $455/t CFR Taiwan after these had climbed by a total of $47/t over the prior three weeks.
Scrap prices in Japan’s domestic market also experienced an on-week rise of $14-37/t last week with the active procurement of local buyers before the country’s Golden Week celebrations over April 29-May 5. Japanese scrap prices are likely to remain strong till the end of this month, as a local source reported.
Meanwhile, long steel consumption in Taiwan is expected to remain steady in the traditional peak months for construction over March-April, lending some support to local finished steel prices, sources noted. But construction contractors usually slow down their pace of placing new orders when the prices stay high, Mysteel Global noted.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint Research.
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