A major earthquake occurred in Hualien City, Taiwan at 7:58am on Wednesday, but the impact on the operation of Taiwan's steel plants has been minimal so far, Kallanish notes.

According to the Central Weather Administration of Taiwan, the epicentre of the 7.2-magnitude earthquake was located in the eastern waters of Taiwan Island, 25km away from the Hualien City Government buildings.

The strongest earthquake in Taiwan in 25 years had killed 9 people and injured over 900 as of Wednesday evening. However, the operations of Taiwanese steel mills have not been significantly affected.

China Steel Corporation, Taiwan's largest steel mill, reported that everything was operating as normal as early as 9am on Wednesday.

Steel stocks meanwhile rose in response to the earthquake on Wednesday. The stocks of several steelmakers such as China Steel Structure hit their daily trading limit as soon as the stock market opened on Wednesday, although they fell back slightly afterwards. By contrast, the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation weighted index fell by 0.6% from Tuesday to 20,337.6, the largest daily loss since 15 March.