Over the past week, Taiwanese steel mills have shown little interest in import scrap, only buying containerised scrap from the US. The price ideas of Japanese scrap suppliers have failed to find buyers in Taiwan. The sluggish trading in the local Taiwanese rebar market is not helping the situation. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar prices stable this week at TWD 15,800/mt ($501/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based price moving down by $5/mt taking the exchange rate into account. It is reported that Feng Hsin has continued selling rebar at TWD 15,600/mt ($495/mt) ex-works this week, unchanged week on week in the local currency, while down by $5/mt on US dollar basis. According to a Taiwanese source, trading in the local market has been on the mute side this week, while mills are focusing on delivering rebars to customers with a TWD 100/mt discount.
After disappearing for a week, offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers are once again heard in Taiwan, at $300-305/mt CFR. Some mills after negotiations have finally concluded ex-US deals at $298-299/mt CFR this week, down $0.5/mt week on week on average.
Japanese sellers have not returned to the Taiwanese market this week. “Taiwanese mills have no appetite to buy Japanese scrap and their procurement prices are still lower than Japanese sellers’ targeted prices,” a source in Taiwan commented.
Feng Hsin has kept its scrap procurement prices stable this week at TWD 8,800/mt ($279/mt) delivered, down by $3/mt on US dollar basis. “The pace of collection in the local scrap market is normal and import prices are not moving much. Therefore, we have seen no change in local scrap purchase prices this week,” a source added.
$1 = TWD 31.55
