Taiwan's Feng Hsin lifts rebar, scrap prices further

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hike its rebar list prices and scrap buying prices for transactions over December 5-9, given the further growth in global scrap prices, a company official confirmed on Monday.

With the latest adjustment, Feng Hsin is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 19,800/tonne ($650/t) EXW for business discussions till this Friday, rising for the second week by another TWD 400/t from the prior week. Meanwhile, the mini-mills buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was lifted by another TWD 300/t on Monday to TWD 10,700/t, after the rise of TWD 200/t on December 2, according to the official.

Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan continued firming over the past week, lending some support to the island's steel market and giving local steel mills some confidence to adjust their finished steel sales prices and scrap buying prices accordingly, Mysteel Global learned.

As of December 5, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material was reported at $345/t CFR Taiwan, increasing for the second week by a sharper of $15/t on week, as against the on-week rise of $5/t over the prior week, according to a local market source. During the same period, the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap came in at $360/t CFR Taiwan, higher by $10/t from one week earlier.

As for China's scrap market, prices saw some signs of recovering last week supported by the tightness of scrap supplies, with Mysteel's steel scrap price index climbing by Yuan 15.2/tonne ($2.2/t) on week to Yuan 2,996.7/t on delivery and including the 13% VAT as of December 2.

Some domestic steel mills have been actively raising their scrap procurement prices to encourage deliveries and to maintain stable production. For example, Shagang Group, China's leading electric-arc-furnace producer in East China's Jiangsu province, lifted its scrap procurement prices for all grades by Yuan 50-80/t effective from December 3, as reported.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

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