Taiwan Feng Hsin's rebar, scrap prices keep stable

Mysteel Global: Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hold its rebar list prices and local scrap buying prices again for business discussions over December 30-January 3 to monitor market changes in the near term, a company official told Mysteel Global.

For transactions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 18,000/tonne ($549/t) EXW, the lowest since late December 2020, and its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap keeps stable on week at TWD 8,600/t, according to the official.

Prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan remained weak, with the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap losing $5/t from one week before to sit at $305/t CFR Taiwan by December 30. There was no quotation for US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap over the past week due to the public holiday in the United States to celebrate Christmas and New Year, a local market source said.

Besides, many scrap suppliers refused to quote at a lower price in response to the weakness in global scrap markets, as they would like to stand on the sidelines to monitor the market direction in the coming week, he added.

In parallel, rebar prices in Chinese mainland kept rangebound over the past week, mainly thanks to the support from the low-level output and continuous falls in rebar inventories at traders' warehouses, though demand from end-users was still depressed during the traditional off-season for steel consumption in winter. This also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, Mysteel Global learned.

As of December 30, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to China's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,491/tonne ($476/t) including the 13% VAT, up by Yuan 1/t from one week ago.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.