Following last week’s sales of 150,000 mt, domestic rebar sales in Taiwan have fallen silent again in the current week. According to a source at one Taiwanese producer, “Neither rebar demand nor the scrap needs of Taiwan are expected to recover in the short term. Perhaps in the fourth quarter of 2023 or the first quarter of 2024.” Meanwhile, Feng Hsin has increased its local rebar prices by TWD 200/mt ($6/mt) week on week to 18,900/mt ($596/mt) ex-works. According to a source, due to the recent depreciation of the Taiwanese dollar against the US dollar, producers would like to minimize the gap between import and domestic scrap quotations.
Over the past week, offers for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers to Taiwan have been at $365-368/mt CFR, continuing their uptrend from $360-370/mt CFR recorded last week. The highest deal done was at $365/mt CFR.
At the same time, Japanese scrap suppliers increased their offers for H1/2 (50:50) scrap by bulk to Taiwan to $375-389/mt CFR, from $375-380/mt CFR. SteelOrbis has learned that a limited number of deals were done below $380/mt CFR.
Domestic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap prices in Taiwan have increased by TWD 200/mt or $6/mt to TWD 11,700/mt ($369/mt) delivered to mill.
$1 = TWD 31.72