Taiwan's Feng Hsin holds rebar, scrap prices for 3rd week

Mysteel Global: Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and local scrap buying prices again for transactions over January 6-10 after noting the uncertainty in global scrap markets, according to a company official. This marks the third straight week Feng Hsin has kept these prices unchanged, Mysteel Global notes.

For business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at a four-year low of TWD 18,000/tonne ($549/t) EXW, the same level since the second half of December, and its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged on week at TWD 8,600/t, the official confirmed.

Mini-mills in Taiwan would like to keep holding onto rebar and scrap prices this week to monitor market changes in the near term. There was no quotation for US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap and Japan-origin H2 scrap over the past week, a local market source said.

Besides, rebar sales in Taiwan remained dull in the past week, as local end-users were cautious about placing new orders after the weakening of square billet prices, the Feng Hsin official told Mysteel Global.

As for the steel market in Chinese mainland, spot rebar prices lost ground over the past week with thinning demand from end-users during the traditional off-season for construction steel consumption, which aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market as well, Mysteel Global noted.

On January 6, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to China's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,460/tonne ($472/t) including the 13% VAT, losing by Yuan 31/t from one week before.

The daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking across China registered 97,712 tonnes/day on average over December 31 2024-January 6, falling 10,385 t/d or 9.6% from the prior week's level.

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