China Steel Corp (中鋼) is likely to raise domestic steel prices for March shipments today because of strong demand from downstream customers, after the nation’s biggest steelmaker twice reduced prices for December-February delivery.
“China Steel will probably raise all product prices for the first time in three months to reflect rising raw material costs and strong downstream demand,” an analyst at Capital Securities Corp (群益證券) said by telephone yesterday.
The analyst, who wished to remain anonymous, said the company might raise prices by an average NT$800 to NT$1,000 (US$25 to US$31.50) a tonne for March delivery, after reducing them by an average NT$280 per tonne for January-February shipments from December delivery.
The Kaohsiung-based company is scheduled to announce domestic steel prices today after the stock market closes.
Shares of China Steel fell 0.73 percent at NT$34.15 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday, compared with the benchmark TAIEX’s decline of 1.07 percent.
Last week, China’s largest steelmaker, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (寶鋼), unexpectedly announced that it would keep prices for its main products for February shipments unchanged from the January level. That came after China’s central bank announced a 0.5 percentage point increase in the reserve requirement ratio for commercial banks in order to contain a potential asset bubble.
Citigroup on Monday predicted that China Steel would raise prices today given recent rises in both spot and scrap steel prices in Taiwan.
The brokerage said that spot prices of hot-rolled coil had recently risen to NT$19,500 per tonne compared with China Steel’s NT$17,900 per tonne, while scrap steel prices had increased by 10 percent over the past two weeks because of maintenance for furnaces and bad weather.
“Traders [have] started accumulating steel products in anticipation of price hikes over the next few months,” Citigroup analysts Peter Kurz and Timothy Chen said in a client note.
Prices of hot-rolled coil, a benchmark product, was expected to increase by up to 5 percent to US$580 a tonne from around US$550, Citigroup forecast. The new March quotes would still be below regional and domestic spot levels, it said.
Given the widening gap between its prices and spot prices, as well as recovering domestic demand, China Steel was likely to continue raising domestic steel prices for April-May shipments when it announces new rates next month, according to both Capital Securities and Citigroup.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) today announced that his company has selected "Beitou Shilin" in Taipei for its new Taiwan office, called Nvidia Constellation, putting an end to months of speculation. Industry sources have said that the tech giant has been eyeing the Beitou Shilin Science Park as the site of its new overseas headquarters, and speculated that the new headquarters would be built on two plots of land designated as "T17" and "T18," which span 3.89 hectares in the park. "I think it's time for us to reveal one of the largest products we've ever built," Huang said near the
China yesterday announced anti-dumping duties as high as 74.9 percent on imports of polyoxymethylene (POM) copolymers, a type of engineering plastic, from Taiwan, the US, the EU and Japan. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s findings conclude a probe launched in May last year, shortly after the US sharply increased tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles, computer chips and other imports. POM copolymers can partially replace metals such as copper and zinc, and have various applications, including in auto parts, electronics and medical equipment, the Chinese ministry has said. In January, it said initial investigations had determined that dumping was taking place, and implemented preliminary
Intel Corp yesterday reinforced its determination to strengthen its partnerships with Taiwan’s ecosystem partners including original-electronic-manufacturing (OEM) companies such as Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and chipmaker United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電). “Tonight marks a new beginning. We renew our new partnership with Taiwan ecosystem,” Intel new chief executive officer Tan Lip-bu (陳立武) said at a dinner with representatives from the company’s local partners, celebrating the 40th anniversary of the US chip giant’s presence in Taiwan. Tan took the reins at Intel six weeks ago aiming to reform the chipmaker and revive its past glory. This is the first time Tan
CUSTOMERS’ BURDEN: TSMC already has operations in the US and is a foundry, so any tariff increase would mostly affect US customers, not the company, the minister said Taiwanese manufacturers are “not afraid” of US tariffs, but are concerned about being affected more heavily than regional economic competitors Japan and South Korea, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said. “Taiwan has many advantages that other countries do not have, the most notable of which is its semiconductor ecosystem,” Kuo said. The US “must rely on Taiwan” to boost its microchip manufacturing capacities, Kuo said in an interview ahead of his one-year anniversary in office tomorrow. Taiwan has submitted a position paper under Section 232 of the US Trade Expansion Act to explain the “complementary relationship” between Taiwan and the US
RSS