Taiwan rebar, scrap prices hold steady amid weak demand and holiday-shortened week

• Wet season continues weighing on steel demand
  
  
• Wait-and-watch sentiment persists in market
  
  

Mysteel Global:Taiwan's largest rebar producer, Feng Hsin Steel, headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its rebar list price and the buying price of local scrap for transactions over 15-18 June to monitor the market changes, according to a company official.

This week is a short working week in Taiwan due to the public holiday on 19 June for the Dragon Boat Festival, Mysteel Global noted.

For business discussions through this Thursday, Feng Hsin continues to offer its 13mm-diameter rebar at TWD 18,400/tonne (t) ($583/t) EXW, staying at the same level from one week before and ending the continuous fall over the prior three consecutive weeks.

Meanwhile, the Taiwanese mill's buying price for local HMS 80:20 scrap also stays unchanged on week at TWD 9,900/t ($314/t), after a total decline of TWD 400/t ($13/t) over the prior two weeks, the official confirmed.

Mini-mills in Taiwan are in no hurry to cut their rebar list prices further this week after the persistent fall since late May, even though the lower prices of global scrap delivered to Taiwan have reduced their production costs, and rebar prices have been under pressure due to thin demand from end-users during the wet season.

As of 15 June, the US-origin HMS 80:20 scrap was reported at $355/t CFR Taiwan, down for the third consecutive week by $2/t on week. No quotation for Japanese H2 scrap had been available over the prior week, according to a local market source in Taiwan.

In the Chinese mainland, rebar prices have kept rangebound lately amid lackluster end-user demand due to frequent rains in eastern and southern China, which also added to the wait-and-see sentiment in Taiwan's steel market, Feng Hsin noted.

On 15 June, Mysteel assessed China's national price of HRB400E 20mm rebar at RMB 3,393/t ($502/t) including 13% VAT, dipping by RMB 6/t ($1/t) from one week ago.

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