Taiwan’s import scrap market has remained soft this week with further decreases seen on the US side, despite the firm stance of Japanese sellers. As no improvement on rebar sales have been observed this week, Taiwanese producers continue to exert pressure on import scrap quotations. The major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has lowered its domestic rebar prices by TWD 300/mt week on week to TWD 16,100/mt ($531/mt) ex-works, with dollar-based prices down by $5/mt, taking the exchange rate into account. According to a Taiwanese market player, this price level is close to rebar rolled with import billet. Therefore, local rebar prices in Taiwan are considered to have reached the bottom, despite ongoing sluggish sales.
Over the past week, the offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers have softened further by $3-5/mt to $300-305/mt CFR. Additionally, actual deal prices have moved down from $302-303/mt CFR to $298-300/mt CFR. Market sources report that the number of offers they received from the US are still on the low side.
Offered prices for Japanese H1/2 (50:50) scrap bulk cargoes have remained stable at $315-320/mt CFR. Taiwanese mills have no appetite due to their slow finished steel sales, high scrap inventories and due to some planned maintenances. Therefore, no bulk deals have been done by Taiwan this week.
Earlier this week, Feng Hsin dropped its scrap procurement prices by TWD 200/mt to TWD 8,400/mt ($277/mt) delivered, down by $4/mt on US dollar basis.
$1= TWD 30.32