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 continuously for transactions over September 9-13, according to a company official.

For business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 18,500/tonne ($575/t) EXW, the same level since the second half of August, and its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged this week at TWD 9,600/t, the official told Mysteel Global.

Prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan remained weak, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap settling at $325/t CFR Taiwan as of September 9, lower by $3/t from one week before, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap witnessed a sharper on-week fall of $10/t to $335/t CFR Taiwan, a local market source said.

Despite the weakness in global scrap prices, local mini mills in Taiwan are in no hurry to cut their rebar list prices and procurement prices for local scrap this week, as they would like to stay on the sidelines to monitor market changes during the traditional peak season for steel consumption, Mysteel Global noted.

Finished steel prices in Chinese mainland retreated somewhat over the past week with the softening market sentiment and lackluster steel demand from end-users. This also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market.

Mysteel's assessment of China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to the country's steel-market sentiment, came in at Yuan 3,235/tonne ($455/t) including the 13% VAT as of September 9, lower by Yuan 82/t from one week ago.

Over September 3-9, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's regular survey averaged 104,644 tonnes/day, down by 7,166 t/d or 6.4% on week.

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