Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to cut its rebar sales price by TWD 300/tonne ($10/t) together with a procurement price cut by TWD 200/t for its locally-sourced scrap over January 13-17 so as to stay competitive, a company official confirmed on January 14.
With the latest adjustment, the mini mill’s 13mm dia rebar list price has been cut to TWD 15,800/t ex-works after having hovered at TWD 16,100/t for nearly a month, and its procurement price for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap has fallen to TWD 7,700/t, according to the Feng Hsin official.
Most construction sites in Taiwan are still operating as per normal for the time being despite the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 23-29 and as of last week, both their consumption, especially for long steel and the steel delivery to them had been steady, local market sources confirmed.
However, downstream buyers including construction sites have shown growing reluctance to book new tonnage since last week, as they will halt operations during the seven-day CNY holiday, and at the same time, they noted that local steel prices held firm while global scrap price already showed signs of softening, the Feng Hsin official shared.
“We understand that many long steel mills in South Taiwan area have already cut their rebar sales prices to reflect the modest weakening in global scrap price and to attract new buying, and we have been forced to take a similar practice to match and to stay competitive,” he explained.
As of January 13, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, a key reference for Taiwan’s scrap and rebar markets, slipped down further by $2/t to $263/t CFR Taiwan, and the Japan-origin H2 scrap was reportedly sold to Taiwan at $271/t CFR, down another $4/t on week, according to other sources from Taiwan.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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