Taiwan's Feng Hsin keeps Scrap, Rebar Prices Stable
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Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to hold its rebar list price and its buying price for locally sourced scrap again over December 30 2019-January 3 2020 on noting the overall stability in the global steel scrap market, a company official confirmed on December 31.
Feng Hsin, thus, is continuing to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 16,100/tonne ($537/t) till this Friday, and at the same time it is paying TWD 7,900/t for the locally-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, he verified.
"Many downstream buyers are in no hurry to place new orders for rebar for the time being as they have bought enough over the prior several weeks," the Feng Hsin official explained, noting that it will not justify any rises in steel or scrap prices.
On the other hand, the growth in the global scrap price slowed down since mid-December and it even came to a standstill over the past week, which also gave the time for the Taiwanese steel mills to take a breath, Mysteel Global understood.
As of December 30, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, a key reference for Taiwan's scrap and rebar markets, remained at its four-month high of $267/t CFR Taiwan, and as of Monday, the Japan-origin H2 scrap was reported sold to Taiwan at $277/t CFR, also the same as the previous week, according to sources from Taiwan.
The pause in the global scrap price from further climb-ups after three months also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, with many local market participants expecting the global scrap price to wander at the crossing for a while, Mysteel Global learned.
"The global scrap price may hover at around the current level or even lose the steam from attempting new highs in the coming days as it has increased quite substantially and consistently in the past few months," the Feng Hsin official said, adding that the US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap price was already $42/t higher than the recent low in early October.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
