Buyers in Taiwan have assessed import billet prices as being too high and so they have either been considering buying import scrap at stable prices or have been looking for finished steel from some Asian suppliers at lower prices.
Ex-China billet offers have remained mainly at $425/mt FOB early this week with the tradable level assessed at $420-425/mt FOB, even though most major mills are refusing to provide additional discounts. “The market is stable amid low demand versus reduced supply. The demand problem has not escalated, so further price cuts are also doubtful... There is no policy support at the year-end and mills are slowly lowering output to welcome winter,” a Chinese trader noted. Though Chinese prices are remaining stable at a relatively low level, such low prices have not been seen since late October, when traders were more aggressive and offering in short positions.
3SP billet offers of Chinese origin to Taiwanese buyers have been at $445/mt CFR, while the lowest offer level was at least $10/mt below that in October, when short position selling was rather active. “Now mills will also wait for $430-435/mt CFR,” an Asian trader said. The lowest 3SP offers have been heard from Russia at $440/mt CFR, also with no interest from the buyer side.
In addition, “some [Taiwanese] mills, finding billet offers too high, shifted to enquire for Dexin wire rod though the buyers’ price ideas are low at $475/mt CFR FO Kaohsiung port, $5-10/mt lower than the mill can offer,” a Singapore-based source said. Since last week, Dexin’s wire rod offers have been standing at $460-465/mt FOB, translating to $485/mt CFR or so. Lower wire rod offers in the Asian market can be found only from China from sellers that agree to offer non-VAT material. In such a case, offers can be as low as $440-445/mt FOB, but no active sales have been heard in this segment either, with some market participants afraid of a resumption of inspections in China.
At the same time, there is stable demand for import scrap in Taiwan as deal prices for ex-US HMS I/II are holding at near $295/mt CFR for almost a month.
