Taiwan Feng Hsin hikes both rebar, scrap prices by $6/t

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hike its rebar list prices and buying prices for locally-sourced scrap by TWD 200/tonne ($6.4/t) respectively for business negotiations over July 3-7, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

With the latest adjustments, the mini-mill is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,500/t for transactions till this Friday, and its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap reaches TWD 10,900/t, according to the official.

Feng Hsin cancelled its weekly pricing meeting last week to monitor the market movement after the Dragon Boat Festival over June 22-23, Mysteel Global was told.

And the price hike this week is mainly to reflect higher production costs, as global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan hovered high over the past week, Mysteel Global learned.

For example, as of July 3, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material came in at $372/t CFR Taiwan, up $2/t from two weeks earlier, according to a local market source, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap stayed unchanged at $380/t CFR Taiwan during the same period.

Meanwhile, the devaluation of the New Taiwan dollar against the U.S. dollar also increased scrap import costs among Taiwanese mini-mills and prompted them to lift their rebar sales prices accordingly, Mysteel Global noted.

Besides, China's finished steel prices have been hovering at relatively high levels over the past two weeks, with market expectations of more stimulus measures to be introduced by the central government in the second half of this year to drive economic growth. Such hopes also lifted the sentiment in Taiwan's steel market to some extent.

As of July 3, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,848/tonne ($532/t) including the 13% VAT, Yuan 47/t higher than the prior week.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.