Taiwan's Feng Hsin rolls over rebar, scrap prices

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer, has decided to roll over its rebar list prices and buying price for locally-sourced scrap over August 10-14 to monitor the change in the local steel market and price trends for global scrap, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

For business till this Friday therefore, the mini-mill headquartered in Kaohsiung in south Taiwan, continues to offer its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 15,000/tonne ($510/t) EXW, while its procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap keeps stable at TWD 7,300/t, according to the official.

International scrap prices strengthened further over the past week in the context of slower scrap generation. As of August 10, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap gained for the fifth straight week, rising by another $2/t on week to $252 CFR Taiwan, the highest since February. Similarly, the price of Japanese H2 scrap saw larger week-on-week growth of $10/t to reach a two-month high of $267/t CFR Taiwan.

"Market participants in Taiwan believe that the hike in global scrap prices may continue for the near term, boosting sentiment in the local steel market and encouraging steel users to build up some stocks," Feng Hsin's official explained.

The mini-mill enjoyed robust sales of rebars last week, helped by the firm continuing to offer discounts to customers during actual transaction negotiations, Mysteel Global was told. Feng Hsin even adopted some measures to limit sales last week, given the strong demand.

"Although our rebar list price did not reflect the rise in the global scrap market in time, we have decided to hold back on offering discounts this week," the official disclosed.

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