Taiwan’s import scrap market has continued to move up this week. While the offer prices indicate small upward movements, Taiwanese players have interpreted this as more or less a stable trend. Taiwan is the only country to have recorded a rebound in scrap prices in August, but this seems to be coming to an end amid the weakness of the steel market in China, sources reported. The local Taiwanese rebar market has remained silent over the past week. Major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar prices unchanged at TWD 16,600/mt ($544/mt) ex-works, with the dollar-based price down by $9/mt taking the exchange rate into account. SteelOrbis has learned that there is significant hesitancy in the local rebar market towards the recent TWD 1,000/mt price increases announced by steel mills since late July, especially following the $10/mt drop in China’s billet export prices and Tokyo Steel’s announcement of a JPY 500/mt cut in its domestic scrap purchase price.
Over the past week, the offer prices for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers have moved up by $3-5/mt to $310-315/mt CFR. Meanwhile, actual deal prices moved up from $305-307/mt CFR to $307-308/mt CFR.
Offered prices for Japanese H1/2 (50:50) scrap bulk cargoes have also increased, from the range of $317-320/mt CFR to $320-325/mt CFR. “No bulk deal was done this week as mills are resisting higher offers and bidding lower as the steel market seems weak this week,” a source said. A deal done by Taiwan last week was closed at $318/mt CFR.
Over the past week, Feng Hsin has kept its scrap procurement prices stable at TWD 8,900/mt ($292/mt) delivered, down by $4/mt on US dollar basis.
$1 = TWD 30.52