Taiwan's Feng Hsin lifts rebar, scrap prices again

Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan's largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung in central Taiwan, has decided to raise its rebar list prices and scrap buying prices for local scrap again by TWD 400/tonne ($13.1/t) respectively on week for the business negotiations over March 13-17. The steelmaker aims to reflect higher scrap prices globally and the better rebar sales locally, a company official explained on Tuesday.

After the adjustment, the mini-mill's offering price for 13mm dia rebar reached TWD 21,500/t EXW for sales till this Friday, the highest since last July, while its buying price for local HMS 1&2 80:20 scrap climbs to a nine-month high of TWD 12,700/t, according to the official.

Recently, global scrap prices delivered to Taiwan have increased further, prompting local steelmakers to hike their procurement prices of locally-sourced scrap to encourage deliveries, Mysteel Global learned.

As of March 13, the price of US-sourced HMS 1&2 80:20 material was at $435/t CFR Taiwan, gaining $10/t from one week earlier, while the price of Japan-origin H2 scrap stayed unchanged on week at the nine-month high of $440/t CFR Taiwan, according to a local market source.

During February, Taiwan imported 252,300 tonnes of ferrous scrap, up 4.8% from the same month a year ago. The USA remained the largest supplier, shipping 108,400 tonnes, though this was lower by 20% on-year, while Japan shipped 65,300 tonnes, more than double the February 2022 total, Mysteel Global notes.

To offset their higher production costs, many mini-mills in Taiwan decided to raise their rebar list prices, Mysteel Global was told. Fortunately, local rebar sales have also performed better of late.

Major steel producers in mainland China also increased their scrap buying prices, Mysteel Global noted. They need to ensure that they can receive additional scrap deliveries because their scrap consumption is rising in tandem with their higher steel output.

For example, Shagang Group, China's leading electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmaker headquartered in Zhangjiagang in East China's Jiangsu province, raised its steel scrap procurement prices by Yuan 80/tonne ($11.6/t) effective from March 11, as reported.

Mysteel's latest weekly survey among 87 EAF steel mills across the country showed that over March 3-9, their capacity utilization had increased for the sixth consecutive week to a ten-month high of 63.35%, higher by 5.41 percentage points from the prior week.

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.