Taiwan Feng Hsin rolls over rebar, scrap prices

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer, has decided to roll over its rebar list price and buying price for locally-sourced scrap for transactions over June 7-11 to monitor market moves after noting the divergence in global scrap-market trends, a company official told Mysteel Global.

Until this Friday, Feng Hsin's list price for 13mm dia rebar list price will stay at TWD 22,700/tonne ($819/t) EXW - unchanged for a third week, the official confirmed. At the same time the mini-mill, headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, is still paying TWD 11,300/t for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap after the sharp fall of TWD 900/t over the prior week.

As of June 7, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap slipped for the second week, easing by another $19/t on week to reach $441/t CFR Taiwan, while that of Japan-origin H2 scrap rebounded to $502/t CFR Taiwan, up $32/t on week after sliding for two weeks, a local market source said.

The diverging trends in the global scrap market encouraged mini-mills in Taiwan to adopt a wait-and-see tactic for the moment, to monitor any changes in the coming term. Besides, local EAF steelmakers are in no hurry to stock up scrap for now after having entered the period of summer power restrictions starting from June 1 which will last till the end of September, Mysteel Global noted. Heavy industrial power users such as mini-mills are requested to halt production during daytime hours to ensure electricity supplies are available for households.

During this period, Taiwan mini-mills' scrap consumption usually decreases as the mills prefer to conduct annual maintenance on their steelmaking facilities over June-September, as reported.

Feng Hsin has decided to keep its rebar list price stable for sales this week, given the firm prices that mills in southern Taiwan are charging. This is despite the fact that the new orders the mill has received from end-users have softened with the unclear trend in global scrap prices.

"They (mills in southern Taiwan) have not cut their rebar sales prices so far, though their list prices are higher (than Feng Hsin's)," the company official said. He predicted that Taiwan's steel producers may lower their rebar sales prices if prices of US-sourced scrap slip further.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

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