Taiwan's Feng Hsin keeps rebar, scrap prices stable

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer, has decided to hold its rebar list prices and local scrap buying price for a second week over November 16-20 to monitor market changes, a company official confirmed on Tuesday, even though international scrap prices grew further over the prior week.

Therefore, for contracts till this Friday, the mini-mill headquartered in Kaohsiung in south Taiwan, is still offering its 13mm dia rebar at the ten-month high of TWD 15,900/tonne ($558/t) EXW, changed from the start of this month, while the mill's procurement price for locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap stays at TWD 7,900/t, also unchanged on week, according to the official.

Scrap prices in the global market continued to strengthen over the past week, thanks to better demand from steel producers, Mysteel Global learned.

As of November 16, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap in Taiwan was at $300/t CFR Taiwan, rising for the fifth consecutive week and touching the highest point since April 2019, or up another $8/t on week. The price of Japanese H2 scrap meanwhile witnessed a larger on-week rise of $12/t to settle at a 19-month high of $317/t CFR Taiwan, according to the Feng Hsin official.

"The buying interest of steel users was not so strong last week, and some steel mills in South Taiwan were still giving customers discounts when concluding actual transactions," the Feng Hsin official said, predicting that rebar sales may see some improvement this week driven by the continued strength of global scrap prices.

Demand for construction steel in Taiwan is likely to be good in the coming term as the fourth quarter of every year is usually a robust period for steel consumption - helped by the usual amiable weather - when many building contractors are trying to complete their projects by year's end or before the Chinese New Year, 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.