Taiwan Feng Hsin's rebar, scrap prices down $7/t

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to lower its rebar list prices and buying prices for locally-sourced scrap by TWD 200/tonne ($6.6/t) respectively for transactions over February 13-17 to reflect thin rebar sales in the local market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

With the latest adjustments, Feng Hsin is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 21,000/tonne ($706/t) EXW for business deals till this Friday, the first decrease since late November 2022, according to the official. During the same period, the mini-mill's buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap slides to TWD 12,400/t.

Last week's poor rebar sales were mainly blamed for Feng Hisn's price cut this week. "Local buyers were inactive in placing new orders (of rebar) last week as they believed that global scrap prices had lost the impetus to grow further," the company official explained.

Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan remained stable last week, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material staying unchanged on week at a seven-month high of $420/t CFR Taiwan as of February 13, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap also remaining steady at $435/t CFR Taiwan, the same level since mid-January, according to a local market source.

However, many market participants are not so confident about global scrap prices in the coming term, as scrap demand from Turkey, one of the world's major scrap importers, may decrease with the large earthquake that struck the southeast area of the country on February 6, which impacted the normal operation of local steelmakers as Turkish energy suppliers had temporarily halted deliveries of natural gas to this area, and many highways and ports also suffered severe damages.

Major steel mills in mainland China also decided to cut their scrap buying prices this week. For example, Shagang Group (Shagang), the country's leading electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmaker headquartered in East China's Jiangsu, has announced to cut its steel scrap procurement prices by Yuan 50/tonne ($7.3/t), effective from February 14, according to market sources.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

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