Taiwan's Feng Hsin rolls over rebar, scrap prices
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Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and procurement prices of local scrap for transactions over January 29-February 2 to monitor the market changes this week, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.
For the business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 20,000/tonne ($642/t) EXW, the same level from the previous week, and its procurement price of local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged this week at TWD 11,400/t, according to the official.
Prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan softened somewhat recently, with the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap down to $377/t CFR Taiwan as of January 29, lower by $3/t on week, and the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap also decreased by $2/t during the same period to reach $383/t CFR Taiwan, a local market source said.
However, local mini-mills in Taiwan prefer to hold their rebar offering prices at the current level on account of the steady demand from end-users before the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday in early February, as many local construction contractors usually accelerate their pace of construction work before the CNY break, Mysteel Global learned.
On the contrary, demand for construction steel in mainland China has shrunk significantly, as more end-users have halted operations earlier to celebrate the most important festival in China.
As of Monday, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod, and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's regular tracking had slipped for the fifth working day to 42,475 metric tonnes per day, falling by 59,281 t/d, or 58.3%, from one week earlier.
Finished steel prices on the mainland China kept firm amid the positive sentiment in the domestic market, with Mysteel's assessment of the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of Chinese domestic steel-market sentiment, reaching Yuan 4,049/tonne ($564/t) including the 13% VAT on January 29, up Yuan 23/t on the week.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.