Taiwan Feng Hsin keeps holding rebar, scrap prices

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 for transactions over January 15-19, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

For business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill's list price of 13mm dia rebar stays unchanged on week at TWD 19,700/tonne ($628/t) EXW, and it continues to pay TWD 11,200/t for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap this week, according to the official.

Prices of global steel scrap delivered to Taiwan kept stable recently, encouraging mini-mills in Taiwan to hold both their procurement prices for local scrap supplies and the list prices of their rebar products to monitor the market changes this week, Mysteel Global learned.

As of January 15, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was reported at $375/t CFR Taiwan, the same level from one week before, a local market source said, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap also stayed unchanged on week at $380/t CFR Taiwan during the same period.

Rebar demand from Taiwan's end-users remains steady before the Chinese New Year holiday which will come in early February this year, as many local construction contractors have accelerated their pace of construction on projects.

Despite that, many mini-mills in Taiwan still choose to hold their rebar list prices to wait and see after noting the weakness in finished steel prices in mainland China, Mysteel Global noted.

As of January 15, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of Chinese domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,030/tonne ($561/t) including the 13% VAT, losing by Yuan 33/t from one week earlier.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.