Taiwan's Feng Hsin rolls over rebar, scrap prices again

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to hold its rebar list prices and buying prices for local scrap for transactions over September 18-22 to monitor market changes, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

For business negotiations till this Friday, the mini-mills list price for its 13mm dia rebar stays at TWD 19,700/tonne ($615/t) for a fifth straight week, while scrap collectors will continue to receive TWD 11,300/t for their HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap, also unchanged since late August, according to the official.

Global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan remained stable over the past week, encouraging local mini-mills to hold their buying prices for scrap and list prices for products including rebars, Mysteel Global noted

As of September 18, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap was still at $372/t CFR Taiwan, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap remained at $375/t CFR Taiwan, taking a pause after the decrease over the past two weeks, according to a local market source.

Besides, mini-mills in Taiwan have preferred to adopt a wait-and-see stance on sales prices as rebar demand from local contractors is not so strong, Mysteel Global learned, even though September is usually a strong month for steel consumption in Taiwan.

Long steel prices in mainland China strengthened further over the past week as new financial policies to boost economic growth helped sentiment turn positive. Meanwhile, transactions in the physical market also improved with the replenishment of end-users before the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays over September 29-October 6.

As of September 18, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,866/tonne ($521/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 66/t on the week.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.