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 procurement prices for local scrap again for transactions over July 22-26, according to a company official.

For business negotiations till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,300/tonne ($588/t) EXW, staying unchanged for the second week, and it is still paying TWD 10,500/t for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, the same level since early June, the official confirmed.

Global steel scrap prices delivered to Taiwan were largely stable over the past week, encouraging local mini-mills on the island to keep their rebar list prices and buying prices of local scrap stable to monitor market changes in the coming term, Mysteel Global learned.

As of July 22, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap came in at $347/t CFR Taiwan, being unchanged on week after a slight increase of $2/t over the prior week, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap stayed flat at $357/t CFR Taiwan since the beginning of June, according to the official.

As for the steel market in Chinese mainland, prices of finished steel products weakened further in the past week due to thinning demand from end-users and negative sentiment in the domestic market, Mysteel Global noted.

As of July 22, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,536/tonne ($486/t) including the 13% VAT, falling by a total of Yuan 98/t on week and recording its lowest level since May 2017.

Additionally, many Chinese rebar traders would like to concede somewhat in their offering prices to facilitate sales and to reduce their stocks of the long steel in hand, as China's State Administration for Market Regulation approved two new mandatory national standards for HR rebar on June 25, and stricter production accuracy, fatigue performance, smelting methods and testing methods will be requested starting from September 25, as reported.

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