As the war in Middle East continues, impacting oil prices and sea freight rates, availability of import scrap for Taiwan is on the low side. Not only is freight from the US increasing but also the sharp price rise in Japan in the Kanto tender which has been reflected in the local Japanese market has reduced import scrap availability for Taiwan. Sources report that import billet is also not an option for Taiwanese buyers. Under the current conditions, import scrap prices are rising in Taiwan, while steel demand is not following at the same pace. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has revised its domestic rebar prices up by another TWD 300/mt week on week to TWD 16,900/mt ($528/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based prices increasing by $6/mt taking the exchange rate into account. “Feng Hsin again only sold 10,000 mt this week due to the limited import scrap availability in the market,” a source told SteelOrbis. Southern Taiwanese mills have also sold limited tonnages due to the difficulties of securing local or import scrap or import billets.
Offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers to Taiwan have increased over the past week from the range of $328/mt CFR to $333-335/mt CFR, with very few offers heard. “A lot of offers are still held back due to the lack of freight resulting from the war in the Middle East” a source at a major Taiwanese mill commented. Actual prices in ex-US deals have moved up from $325/mt CFR to $329-330/mt CFR. SteelOrbis also hears that US scrap exporters are struggling to find available vessels as freight moves up, and so the local market is now an option for all exporters.
This week, Japanese H1/2 (50:50) offers to Taiwan have disappeared once again. Market sources report that the sharp price increase observed in Japan’s Kanto scrap export tender as well as the rises announced by Tokyo Steel have contributed to this situation. Late last week, Japanese H1/2 scrap offers were in the range of $340-345/mt CFR Taiwan.
As predicted last week, Feng Hsin has raised its scrap procurement prices by TWD 200/mt this week to TWD 9,600/mt ($299/mt) delivered, up by $3/mt on US dollar basis. The upward movement of import scrap quotations is supporting the new prices in the local market, but the depreciation of the Taiwanese dollar is curbing the rise in dollar-based prices.
$1 = TWD 32.00