Taiwan's CSC lifts HRC, CRC list prices for Aug sales

China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's largest steel mill headquartered in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, is raising the list prices of carbon steel hot-rolled and cold-rolled coils for August sales to offset its higher costs of steelmaking raw materials, according to the company's latest release on July 14.

The prices of iron ore and metallurgical coal in US dollars have recovered recently, just as the New Taiwan Dollar has weakened against the US currency, resulting in higher input costs for the steelmaker, it pointed out in the release.

Besides, since Q2 this year steel demand has shown some signs of bottoming out with the gradual recovery in manufacturing indicators of major industrial countries such as the Purchasing Managers' Index, the steel giant believed.

Mainland China has taken many measures to boost economic growth, such as loosening the controls on its property market, accelerating infrastructure construction, and promoting the sales of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), which may boost steel consumption in the coming term.

Meanwhile, the European Steel Association (EUROFER) has predicted that steel demand in Europe will recover gradually in the second half of this year, the release said.

As for Taiwan's local market, high-end steel demand will be boosted by the solid performance of automotive sales and the increased demand for computers and servers with the development of artificial intelligence and high performance computing, CSC suggested.

Fundamentals in the global steel industry have seen some improvement, as Chinese steel producers had slowed their pace production during the April-June quarter in response to shrinking profit margins, and production among many European steelmakers has also been interrupted by a variety of factors, the company noted.

Steel prices in the global market have increased, and leading steelmakers internationally have lifted their list prices accordingly. For example, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co, the listed-arm of the world's largest steelmaker China Baowu Steel Group, has decided to raise its list prices of carbon steel hot-rolled coil for local business by Yuan 100/tonne ($14/t) for sales in August, as reported.

The price rises tabled by CSC for its August list were limited however, as the company prefers to help its downstream customers win more orders from global buyers and to improve their competitiveness in overseas markets, CSC said in the release.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

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