Taiwan’s import scrap market has remained stable this week, with only small declines observed in Japanese scrap offers. The Taiwanese rebar market this week has been sluggish in terms of trading, market sources report, because end-users have been asking for lower rebar prices to conclude actual deals, but Taiwanese mills resisted their requests. In the current week, major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has kept its domestic rebar prices stable at TWD 18,800/mt ($584/mt) ex-works, while its dollar-based prices have increased by $4/mt over the past week due to currency fluctuations. Also, a source at a major Taiwanese producer said, “Taiwanese mills have very small profit margins with current import billet prices being at $515/mt CFR Taiwan.”
Offers for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers are still at $350-355/mt CFR, unchanged week on week. Deals have been closed at around $348-350/mt CFR, the same levels as recorded last week.
Ex-Japan offers for H1/2 (50:50) scrap by bulk to Taiwan have remained at $368-370/mt CFR, with only a small $3/mt decrease on the upper end observed. No bookings from Japan to Taiwan have been heard this week.
With import scrap prices remaining unchanged over the past week and given the stability of the Taiwanese dollar-US dollar exchange rate, domestic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap prices in Taiwan have moved sideways at TWD 11,400/mt ($354/mt with a $2/mt increase) delivered to mill.
$1 = TWD 32.21