Taiwan
Taiwanese mills remained cautiously amid higher offers on Monday. A few deals were heard on Monday at $283-285/mt cfr. The Davis Index for containerized US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) Monday rose by $4/mt to $283/mt cfr Taiwan from Friday. Prices of finished steel in Taiwan increased for the second consecutive weeks and are likely to rise further to offset higher input costs.
Offers for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) in FEUs were at $285/mt cfr and are expected to rise with an uptick in buying from Turkey. The Davis Index for US-origin HMS 1&2 (80:20) in Turkey rose by $8/mt on Friday from Oct 16. While demand is limited, rising offers are pushing ferrous scrap prices up.
To offset rising imported scrap prices, Feng Hsin raised domestic rebar and scrap prices by TWD300/mt on Monday. This was the second raise in two weeks and as per market participants, rebar prices are likely to rise further to offset increased input costs.
Domestic HMS 1&2 (80:20) in South and North Taiwan were up by TWD300/mt ($10.5/mt) to TWD7,900/mt ($265/mt) and TWD81,100/mt delivered mill, respectively, on Tuesday.
Japan
After flat prices last week, Tokyo Steel raised ferrous scrap prices by JPY500/mt ($4.8/mt) for all grades of ferrous scrap effective Nov 3 for four of its plants except Utsunomiya. Offers for #2 HMS were at JPY27,500/mt delivered Tahara, Kyushu and Okayama plant.
Daily Index for domestic HS settled up by JPY500/mt to JPY29,500/mt delivered Okayama and Kyushu plant, JPY30,000/mt delivered Tahara plant and JPY28,500/mt delivered Takamatsu plant. The daily index for the grade settled flat at JPY27,500/mt delivered Utsunomiya and the same trend was followed by other scrap grades.
Export offers are expected to rise further on rising domestic demand and global cues.
($1= TWD28.5;JPY105)