Taiwan’s import scrap market is still characterized by a soft sideways price trend, as was seen in the previous week also. Despite the small softening seen in the ex-US scrap segment, sources considered this to be more or less a sideways movement. Meanwhile, Japanese scrap sellers have been quiet this week. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar price unchanged at TWD 16,100/mt ($527/mt) ex-works, with its dollar-based price down by $5/mt taking the exchange rate into account. As anticipated, the local rebar market has been silent this week. “This is our trend. The Taiwanese rebar market has such a rhythm to sell one week and then remain silent again for a few weeks because the real estate market is bad in Taiwan, and this is expected to last until next year,” a local source commented.
Over the past week, offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers have remained relatively stable at $295-302/mt CFR as compared to last week’s $295-307/mt CFR. Additionally, actual deal prices have moved down on the upper end from $295-300/mt CFR to $295-297/mt CFR. SteelOrbis hears that the number of ex-US cargoes offered to Taiwan is still limited.
Offers for Japanese H1/2 (50:50) scrap bulk cargoes have completely disappeared from the market this week, after last week’s offers at $318-322/mt CFR. “There are no Japanese offers this week due to the unstable Japanese yen as well as low price expectations and slow demand from Taiwanese mills,” a Taiwanese source commented.
Feng Hsin has kept its scrap procurement prices stable this week at TWD 8,400/mt ($275/mt) delivered, down by $3/mt on US dollar basis.
$1 = TWD 30.51