During the past week, import scrap prices in Taiwan have continued to move up, though it can be observed that the pace of the increases has slowed down.
In the current week, the offers for ex-US HMS I/II 80:20 scrap in containers to Taiwan were at $460-465/mt CFR while highest prices fixed in deals were at $462-463/mt CFR against the 460/mt CFR recorded last week.
Meanwhile, offers from Japanese sellers to Taiwan for H1/2 50:50 scrap by bulk have increased week on week to $500/mt CFR. The offers in question were close to $500s/mt CFR Taiwan last week but did not hit this level. For the second week price level offered by Japanese sellers are considered to be “expensive, hence there are no buyers”, SteelOrbis understands.
Local rebar demand in Taiwan is still good. Along with the increases recorded in scrap prices, domestic rebar quotations have risen by TWD 300/mt ($10.8/mt) week on week and are standing at TWD 22,600/mt ($815/mt) ex-works. However, buyers are starting to maintain a cautious stance, market sources state.
“Weird thing is the price correlation between iron ore and billet, pig iron, scrap has been broken,” a source states. While iron ore prices have decreased to lower than $100/mt CFR China levels at the end of last week to rebound again in the following days, import billet prices in Taiwan are at $710/mt CFR and pig iron prices are in the range of $670-680/mt CFR. As the traditional liaison is considered to be severed, it also causes a worry amongst buyers that prices may drop in the coming weeks. Also the uncertainties surrounding China’s real estate giant Evergrande are making the situation fragile, sources state.
$1 = TWD 27.75