Taiwan’s domestic rebar market has gained some pace over the week. Market players report about 100,000 mt of rebar has changed hands as buyers decided it is time to restock amid the uptrend observed in international scrap market. While no significant recovery is expected this year in Taiwan in terms of finished steel demand, import scrap offers to Taiwan have increased under the circumstances. However, Taiwanese buyers have only accepted stable prices or a slight increase, nothing more for now. Meanwhile, Feng Hsin increased its local rebar prices remained stable week on week to 18,900 TWD/mt ($592/mt) ex-works, $4/mt lower on dollar basis. Also, southern Taiwanese mills are selling rebar approximately TWD 200-400/mt lower than this level.
Over the past week, offers for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers to Taiwan were at $370-380/mt CFR this week, continuing their uptrend from $365-368/mt CFR recorded last week. The highest deal done was at $365-367/mt CFR, indicating $2/mt of an increase on the upper end.
At the same time, Japanese scrap suppliers increased their offers for H1/2 (50:50) scrap by bulk to Taiwan to $380-390/mt CFR, from $375-389/mt CFR. SteelOrbis has learned that there are limited number of deals done below $380/mt CFR. Despite the increasing figures in offers, Taiwanese buyers are unwilling to pay higher levels for now.
Domestic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap prices in Taiwan have remained stable week on week at TWD 11,700/mt ($366/mt) delivered to mill. Due to the depreciation of the Taiwanese dollar, dollar-based prices declined by $3/mt.
$1= TWD 31.94