Taiwan's Feng Hsin tweaks rebar, scrap prices again

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to lower its rebar list prices and buying prices further for locally-sourced scrap for transactions over April 24-28, mainly to reflect the weakness in global scrap prices and the negative sentiment in the local steel market, a company official confirmed on Tuesday.

With the latest adjustment, Feng Hsin is offering its 13mm dia rebar at TWD 20,400/tonne ($666/t) for business discussions till this Friday, lower by TWD 400/t on week and hitting the lowest since the start of this year, Mysteel Global notes. Meanwhile, the mini-mill's procurement price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap slips to a three-month low of TWD 11,800/t after the on-week fall of TWD 300/t, according to the official.

One major reason for Feng Hsin's price cut was the continuous decrease in prices of foreign scrap delivered to Taiwan, Mysteel Global was told.

As of April 24, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material was reported at $385/t CFR Taiwan, down $5/t from the prior week, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap declined by another $5/t on week to $390/t CFR Taiwan, refreshing the lowest since late December 2022, according to a local market source.

The Taichung mill is having to concede more of its margin when selling rebars as "demand from local end-users remains lackluster with the persistent fall in global scrap prices and weakening finished steel prices in mainland China," the official explained.

For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment, had fallen to Yuan 3,904/tonne ($566/t) including the 13% VAT as of April 24, losing some Yuan 175/t on week and marking the lowest since November 4 2022.

The decrease was mainly blamed on lower-than-expected demand from end-users during March and April, usually peak months for steel consumption in China, Mysteel Global learned.

Over April 17-23, daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's regular survey only averaged 156,207 tonnes/day, much lower than the average of more than 200,000 t/d that is the usual for this month.

Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

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