Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hike its rebar list prices and procurement prices for local scrap for transactions over April 15-19 to reflect its higher production costs, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
The mini-mill had cancelled its weekly pricing meeting on Monday of last week after deciding to hold the prices and monitor market trends following the public holiday over April 4-7 for the Qingming Festival and Children’s Day, Mysteel Global learned.
With its latest adjustment, Feng Hsin is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,700/tonne ($606/t) EXW for business discussions till this Friday, higher by TWD 200/t from two weeks earlier, while its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap increases by TWD 200/t on fortnight to TWD 11,100/t, the company official confirmed.
Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan have diverged over the past two weeks, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap reaching $365/t CFR Taiwan as of April 15, gaining by $10/t from two weeks before, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap edged down $2/t during the same period to $368/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.
In parallel, finished steel prices in maintained China strengthened last week, which also boosted sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market to some extent, Mysteel Global noted.
For example, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,715/tonne ($513/t) including the 13% VAT as of April 15, higher by Yuan 109/t from one week before.
Sales of construction steel in China have improved further thanks to the replenishment of end-users and rising speculative demand. Over April 9-15, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel’s regular survey averaged 164,946 tonnes/day, up 8.9% on week.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.