Taiwan's Feng Hsin rolls over rebar, scrap prices

Mysteel Global: 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 September 23-27 after the price cut over the prior week, according to a company official.

For business discussions till this Friday, the mini-mill continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 18,100/tonne (t) ($565/t) EXW, the same level from the previous week, and its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged on week at TWD 9,300/t this week, the official confirmed.

Although the prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan have been weakening continuously recently, Feng Hsin is in no hurry to adjust its buying prices of local scrap given better sales of its finished steel products over the past week, Mysteel Global was told.

As of September 23, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap came in at $315/t CFR Taiwan, down for the third week by another $5/t from the prior week and marking the lowest since late November 2020, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap also slipped by $5/t on week to $320/t CFR Taiwan, a local market source said.

As the market is moving into the fourth quarter - the traditional peak season for steel consumption in Taiwan, local mini-mills prefer to hold their rebar sales prices to closely monitor market changes in the coming term.

Besides, steel prices in Chinese mainland kept rangebound over the past week, which also aggravated the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, Mysteel Global learned.

As of September 23, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a pointer to China's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,361/t ($476/t) including the 13% VAT, losing by Yuan 16/t from that on September 14, a working day in Chinese mainland due to the public holiday over September 15-17 for the Mid-Autumn Festiv.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.