Taiwan Feng Hsin hikes rebar, scrap prices by $7-10/t

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to raise its rebar list prices and buying prices for locally-sourced scrap by TWD 200-300/tonne ($6.5-9.8/t) for transactions over January 3-6 to reflect further rises in global scrap prices and better sales of bars in the local market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

The mini-mill convened its weekly pricing meeting on Tuesday this week instead of the usual Monday due to the public holiday in Taiwan on January 2, Mysteel Global noted.

With the latest adjustment, the mini-mill is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 20,500/t EXW for business discussions till this Friday, up by TWD 200/t from the prior week, according to the official. The steelmaker has also lifted the buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap by TWD 300/t on week to TWD 11,500/t for procurement this week.

One major reason for Feng Hsin's product price hike this week was the continuous rally in global scrap prices which gave a boost to Taiwanese steel market sentiment, Mysteel Global was told.

As of January 3, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material was reported at $385/t CFR Taiwan, up for the sixth straight week by another $5/t on week. During the same period, the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap stayed unchanged on week at $405/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.

Besides, demand from users has remained firm recently, as local building contractors are accelerating the pace of construction before the Chinese New Year holidays start later this month, Mysteel Global learned. This also gave local mini-mills some confidence to lift their list prices accordingly.

Chinese steel prices strengthened recently, driven by the better performance of ferrous futures contracts, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment, reaching Yuan 4,189/tonne ($608/t) including the 13% VAT as of January 3, higher by Yuan 61/t compared with one week before.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

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