Taiwan: Feng Hsin hikes rebar, scrap prices further

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 local scrap by TWD 300-400/tonne ($10-13/t) for transactions over January 31-February 3 in response to the firm global scrap prices, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

The mini-mill convened its weekly pricing meeting on Tuesday this week instead of the usual Monday as it preferred to monitor the market changes on the first working day after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday which ended on January 29, Mysteel Global learned.

With the latest adjustments, Feng Hsin is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 21,200/tonne ($672.4/t) EXW for business deals till this Friday, higher by another TWD 300/t from the week before the CNY break. according to the official. During the same period, the mini-mill's buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap rises to TWD 12,400/t this week, higher by TWD 400/t.

The price hikes were mainly to reflect the higher production costs of local steel producers in Taiwan due to the continuing rally in global scrap prices, Mysteel Global was told.

As of January 30, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material was reported at a seven-month high of $410/t CFR Taiwan, gaining another $10/t from two weeks earlier, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap was stable during the same period at $435/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.

Although steel prices strengthened further and many end-users have resumed operations after the CNY break, transactions in Taiwan's physical market have not shown any significant sign of recovery so far, the Feng Hsin official told Mysteel Global.

Despite the thin demand, steel prices in mainland China also increased steadily after the CNY break ended on January 27, as local steel producers are keen to lift their list prices for daily sales, given their firm production costs, Mysteel Global noted.

As of January 30, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at a seven-month high of Yuan 4,338/tonne ($642/t) including the 13% VAT, growing by Yuan 79/t from January 20, the last working day before the long holiday.

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.