Following the recent price increases recorded in Taiwan’s import scrap market, prices have started to soften as demand slows down. Despite the decline observed in ex-US scrap offers, a source at a Taiwanese steel producer said the trend may be considered to be stable in terms of actual deal prices. “Containerized scrap prices have remained stable, while Japan’s offers are weakening. Also, billet quotations fell significantly last week. The Taiwanese market has maintained a wait-and-see stance,” he added. Taiwan’s local rebar market has remained silent once again this week. Rebar deliveries and sales are on the low side due to a lack of confidence as well as the softness of import scrap prices, market sources report. Leading Taiwanese steel producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar prices unchanged at 16,600/mt ($543/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based prices down by $1/mt taking the exchange rate into account.
Over the past week, offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers have weakened by $3-5/mt to $307-310/mt CFR. Additionally, actual deal prices have moved down from $307-308/mt CFR to $306-307/mt CFR. Market sources report that the number of offers received from the US is on the low side.
Offer prices for Japanese H1/2 (50:50) scrap bulk cargoes have also softened, from the range of $320-325/mt CFR to $317-322/mt CFR. “No bulk deal was done this week because the bulk price seems to be trending down and Asian bulk scrap demand is sluggish due to bad weather,” a source said. The latest deal done by Taiwan two weeks ago was closed at $318/mt CFR.
Over the past week, Feng Hsin has kept its scrap purchase prices stable at TWD 8,900/mt ($291/mt) delivered, down by $1/mt on US dollar basis.
$1 = TWD 30.63