Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has cut its procurement price for locally-sourced scrap further by TWD 200/tonne ($6.6/t) for February 10-14 and trim its rebar list price more substantially by TWD 500/t to reflect global scrap price declines and obvious dampening of buying enthusiasm among local downstream users, a company official confirmed on February 10.
The scrap price cut has been the third in one week as “we have lowered our purchasing price (for locally-sourced scrap) twice last week by a total TWD 500/t on noting the continuing softening in global scrap prices,” the Feng Hsin official added.
With the latest adjustment, the mini-mill’s procurement price for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap drops to TWD 6,500/t, and its 13mm dia rebar list price falls to TWD 14,800/t ex-works for sales, according to the company official.
So far, Taiwan’s steel market has not been felt any significant impact from the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NPC), Mysteel Global learned from the Feng Hsin official, with no sudden flushing of Chinese steel products into the Asian markets including Taiwan.
Besides, “most of the local construction sites have resumed normal operations gradually after the official Chinese New Year holiday (over January 23-29) and our rebar transportation has been running smoothly last week,” he confirmed.
However, Taiwan’s construction site contractors are reluctant to book new supplies for the time being as the widespread anticipation of further steel price declines in the coming days with the recent substantial softening in the prices of steelmaking raw materials with scrap in particular, he added.
As of February 10, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, a key reference for Taiwan’s scrap and rebar markets, slipped more substantially by $17/t on week to its four-month low of $225/t CFR Taiwan, and Japan-origin H2 scrap was reportedly sold to Taiwan at $230/t CFR, also down $17/t on week, sources in Taiwan disclosed.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint
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