Taiwan's Feng Hsin cuts rebar, scrap prices by $6/t

Mysteel Global: Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to cut its rebar list prices and local scrap buying prices by TWD 200/tonne ($6.1/t) respectively for transactions over December 2-6, according to a company official.

With the latest price adjustment, the mini-mill is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 18,200/t EXW for business discussions till this Friday, and its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap reaches TWD 8,800/t, the lowest level since late December 2020, the official confirmed.

Feng Hsin's new price cut for scrap purchases was mainly due to the continuous weakness in the prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan over the past week, Mysteel Global was told.

The price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap maintained the downtrend for the sixth consecutive week to sit at $300/t CFR Taiwan as of December 2, losing another $5/t from the previous week, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap came in at $315/t CFR Taiwan, also seeing an on-week fall of $5/t, a local market source said.

Feng Hsin's rebar price cut suggested the negative sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, which persuaded mini-mills in Taiwan to make some concessions in their rebar list prices this week to facilitate sales, Mysteel Global noted.

However, rebar prices in Chinese mainland recovered slightly over the past week, as the further decrease in rebar output among Chinese steel mills eased the market pressure from the supply side. Meanwhile, construction steel sales in the physical market also improved to some extent.

On Monday, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to China's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,463/tonne ($475/t) including the 13% VAT, increasing by Yuan 25/t from one week before.

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