Over the past week, Taiwan’s import scrap market has continued its upward trend despite the slower trading seen in the local rebar market. The increased Japanese scrap offers have failed to find buyers in the market, while ex-US scrap has achieved higher price levels once more. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has raised its domestic rebar price by TWD 200-300/mt this week to TWD 16,300/mt ($514/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based price increasing by $5/mt taking the exchange rate changes into account. Feng Hsin’s had rebar prices opened at TWD 16,000/mt ex-works earlier last week, but their sales price increased to TWD 16,100/mt ($513/mt at TWD 31.43 to the dollar) later in the week for limited quantities. A Taiwan-based source stated today, February 6, “The market is not ready to pick up a sharp rebar price increase within a short period of time. Therefore, trading in the rebar market this week is rather quite.”
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 $312-320/mt CFR to $317-321/mt CFR. Actual prices in ex-US deals have moved up from $312-314/mt CFR to $316/mt CFR. Market sources report that the cold weather conditions affecting the US West Coast are putting pressure on scrap suppliers as collection is slowing while collection costs are rising.
This week, Japanese H1/2 (50:50) offers have been in the range of $330-335/mt CFR Taiwan, as compared to the $321-327/mt CFR reported two weeks ago. No deals have been signed this week, following the absence of Japanese suppliers last week. Sources report that offers for this grade were limited despite the weakening of the Japanese yen against the US dollar towards JPY 157.
Feng Hsin has kept its scrap procurement prices stable this week at TWD 9,200/mt ($291/mt) delivered, down by $2/mt on US dollar basis due to the sharp increase in import scrap prices. Taiwanese mills state that they want to monitor the rebar market before moving to consider scrap purchases.
$1 = TWD 31.68
