Taiwan Feng Hsin's rebar, scrap prices keep stable

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and buying prices for locally-sourced scrap for transactions over August 28-September 1 to monitor market changes after its price hike over the prior week, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

For business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,700/tonne ($618/t), the same level from one week before, and its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged on week at TWD 11,300/t, according to the official.

As of August 28, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap material was reported at $372/t CFR Taiwan, up for the fourth straight week by another $4/t on week, according to a local market source. The price of Japan-origin H2 scrap stayed at $383/t CFR Taiwan, the same level from the prior week, the source added.

However, mini-mills in Taiwan were in no hurry to adjust their offering prices of rebar this week, as demand from local construction contractors was not so strong recently, encouraging them to hold their offering prices to watch for market directions in the coming term.

Although scrap prices in global markets held firm over the past week, finished steel prices in mainland China lost the impetus to grow further with lackluster demand from end-users, which also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, Mysteel Global learned.

For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of its domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,765/tonne ($516/t) including the 13% VAT as of August 28, which decreased by Yuan 22/t compared with the recent high on August 24, though still higher by Yuan 15/t on a weekly basis.

Over August 22-28, the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 151,991 tonnes/day, lower by 5,211 t/d from the prior week.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.