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 again over April 29-May 3 to monitor market developments this week, a company official confirmed on Monday.
As a result, for business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill’s 13mm dia rebar stays at TWD 19,700/tonne ($604/t) EXW, unchanged since mid-April, and its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap keeps stable on week at TWD 11,100/t, according to the official.
Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan have diverged over the past week, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap staying the same on week at $363/t CFR Taiwan as of April 29, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap has continued softening to land at $361/t CFR Taiwan as of Monday, down for the third week by another $4/t from the previous week, according to a local market source.
Local mini-mills in Taiwan are in no hurry to adjust their rebar list prices and buying prices for local scrap, as they intend to hold both prices to monitor market changes this week.
Finished steel prices in mainland China have also kept rangebound over the past week, as market sentiment softened when demand from users was not as strong as expected before the Labour Day holiday over May 1-5. This also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan’s steel market, Mysteel Global learned.
For example, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar in China, a pointer to domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,810/tonne ($526/t) including the 13% VAT as of April 28 (a substitute working day in China for the five-day holiday), dipping by Yuan 2/t from that on April 19.
Long steel sales in the physical market have decreased, with the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel’s regular survey averaging 136,919 tonnes/day over April 22-28, down by 18,922 t/d or 12.1% on week.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.