While the impact of last week’s sharp price increase in Japan’s Kanto scrap export tender continues to disrupt availability of Japanese scrap for Taiwanese steel mills, sources also report that there is also a low number of offers from the US West Coast. Import scrap prices for Taiwan are under upward pressure, though so far only ex-US West Coast prices have managed to move up slightly. Meanwhile, concerns regarding scrap availability are forcing Taiwanese producers to accept higher price levels for local scrap. Major Taiwanese steel producer Feng Hsin has revised its domestic rebar price up by another TWD 200/mt over the past week to TWD 18,300/mt ($580/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based price increasing by $10/mt taking the exchange rate into account. “This is the seventh consecutive week of the rebar uptrend and rebar demand is not sufficient to continue buying every week,” a source added. Chinese billet prices have remained at around $485/mt CFR Taiwan, sources report, adding that a deal can be done in the range of $480-485/mt CFR. Russian billet offers are at $490/mt CFR, while this week Taiwan has bought around 50,000 mt of billets from Russia.
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 $356-360/mt CFR to $360-362/mt CFR. Actual prices in ex-US deals have moved up from $353-354/mt CFR to $357-358/mt CFR. As SteelOrbis reported earlier this week, the cost of US West Coast containerized scrap has increased by $10/mt week on week. Market sources report that the number of offers from the US is still very limited.
Following the Japanese H1/2 (50:50) offers to Taiwan last week at $376/mt CFR, sources report that it is difficult for Japanese sellers to make offers to Taiwan due to the rise observed in the Kanto tender. Only one ex-Japan offer has been heard this week at $379/mt CFR, though market players believe that the actual market price is at $385/mt CFR. No deal has been done for Japanese scrap this week.
Feng Hsin has raised its scrap procurement prices by TWD 300/mt over the past week to TWD 10,700/mt ($339/mt) delivered, up by $12/mt on US dollar basis. “The increase in the local scrap market is the result of the sharp upward adjustment in the Kanto tender last week and domestic mills are fighting hard to secure local scrap,” a source at a Taiwanese producer commented.
$1 = TWD 31.56
