As Taiwan's domestic steel and scrap prices have fallen, import prices of scrap have also continued to decline after losing support, Kallanish notes.

Major Taiwanese electric arc furnace mill Feng Hsin Iron & Steel has this week cut its rebar sales prices and scrap purchasing prices by TWD 300/tonne ($10.78/t) and TWD 200/t respectively. Its purchase price for HMS1 is at TWD 11,200/t ($402/t) and the list price for #5 (5/8 inches or 15.875mm nominal diameter base) rebar is at TWD 22,600/t ex-works. The steel mill says downstream expectations are bearish, so market transactions are weaker. Feng Hsin can only choose to lower prices to sustain sales volumes.

In terms of imports, Japanese scrap suppliers have not offered to Taiwan this week, while US scrap offers remain stable. HMS 1&2 80:20 container scrap from the US West Coast was offered at $438/t cfr Taiwan. Weak demand and subdued buying interest mean deals cannot be concluded at last week's levels, however.

Kallanish assessed HMS 1&2 80:20 container scrap on Wednesday at $430-432/t cfr Taiwan, down by another $3-5/t week-on-week.

It is expected that scrap demand will resume once the current period of rains has passed. Local traders however believe that the first task is to reduce inventory, meaning importing interest may not be able to recover in the coming week.