Taiwan’s import scrap market is moving down. US suppliers have accepted lower price levels from Taiwanese producers this week, and even Japanese are cutting their offer prices to Taiwan. A Taiwanese source reports that “Chinese New Year is approaching. Ahead of the holiday, our domestic rebar market has become silent once more”. In the current week, major Taiwanese producer Feng Hsin has slightly increased its rebar prices by TWD 100/mt to TWD 19,400/mt ($622/mt) ex-works, prices moved up by $5/mt on dollar-basis amid exchange rate fluctuations.
Offers for ex-US HMS I/II (80:20) scrap in containers to Taiwan have narrowed week on week to $377-382/mt from $375-385/mt recorded last week. A major producer booked deals for this grade at $375/mt CFR, $5/mt lower than the deal early last week. Others have closed deals at $375-380/mt CFR, again lower than the $380-382/mt range recorded last week.
Japanese scrap suppliers’ offers for H1/2 (50:50) scrap by bulk to Taiwan have moved to $388-393/mt CFR, indicating a $2/mt decline from the upper end and a sharper $14/mt cut on the upper end. No deal done in this range has been heard this week. SteelOrbis hears that Japan is also showing reluctance to share offers to Taiwan.
Domestic HMS I/II 80:20 scrap prices in Taiwan have remained stable over the past week at TWD 12,000/mt ($384/mt) delivered to mill.
$1= TWD 31.21