Taiwan's Feng Hsin cuts rebar, scrap prices further

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to trim both its rebar list prices and buying prices for locally-sourced scrap for the second consecutive week and by a larger degree of TWD 600/t ($21/t) on week over March 22-26 in reaction to the softening in the global scrap prices, a company official confirmed.

The mini-mill has lowered its buying price of the locally-sourced scrap by a total of TWD 600/t via two cuts by TWD 300/t on March 20 and March 22 respectively to reflect the weakness in global scrap market, Mysteel Global was told.

With these cuts, Feng Hsin is paying TWD 10,000/t for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap with deliveries, and its list price of the 13mm dia rebar, after the latest trim, is down at TWD 18,800/t this week for sales over March 22-26, according to the official.

As of March 22, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap slipped by $25/t on week to $395/t CFR Taiwan, and that of Japan-origin H2 scrap fell too by $22/t on week to $408/t CFR Taiwan, Mysteel Global learned from the Taiwanese sources.

Japan's scrap export prices, in general, seem to be on the downtrend so far this week, as reported.

The substantial fall in global scrap prices recently, at the same time, has aggravated the negative sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, prompting many local end-users to slow down their pace of rebar procurement, even though their long steel consumption has appeared firm in the traditional peak season over March-April, Mysteel Global noted.

"The new orders (for rebar) we received last week were very few, as many local construction contractors has stood on the sidelines, closely watching the softening in the global scrap prices," the Feng Hsin official said, and the company hopes that "the continuous cut in rebar list prices will convince more users to return to the market, starting a new round of replenishment this week," he added.

Over March 15-19, Feng Hsin cut both the scrap buying and list rebar prices by TWD 300/t, as reported, which, however, had not reignited the buying enthusiasm from the local market, Mysteel Global noted.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint Research.