China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, announced yesterday it would cut the domestic prices of its steel products by an average of 9.41 percent, or NT$1,888 (US$56.81), per tonne next month.
The across-the-board price cut is aimed at boosting the downstream steel industry’s global competitiveness and helping domestic steel-related industries expand their export markets, the company said in a statement.
The latest price cut will be retroactive to orders from last month and this month, it said.
On Feb. 17, the Kaohsiung-based company announced it would cut its prices by an average of 14. 03 percent, or NT$3,353 per tonne, for orders last month and this month.
In future, rather than announcing its prices on a quarterly basis, China Steel will announce them for the first two months of each quarter, with prices for the third month to be determined later, Chung Lo-min (鍾樂民), executive vice president and spokesman for China Steel, said by telephone yesterday, adding that this strategy would give the firm more flexibility.
On Tuesday, China Steel posted a first-quarter pre-tax net loss of NT$9.57 billion (US$289 million), compared with a pre-tax net profit of NT$14.34 billion in the same period a year ago, the company said on its Web site. It reported a record loss of NT$18.26 billion in the fourth quarter of last year.
“The second quarter is going to be bad,” Chung said. “But it will be better than the first quarter and losses are expected to narrow.”
Chung said whether market demand recovered would depend on when the US and European economies hit bottom.
Under its latest price adjustment, China Steel will cut the price of plates by NT$2,511 a tonne next month. Bars and rods will drop NT$1,500 a tonne, hot-rolled sheet/coils by NT$2,055 a tonne, cold-rolled sheet/coils by NT$1,918 a tonne, electro galvanized sheets by NT$2,000 a tonne, electrical sheets by NT$700 a tonne and hot-dip galvanized sheets by NT$1,480 a tonne.
Shares of China Steel rose NT$1.65, or the 7 percent daily limit, to close at NT$25.6 on the Taiwan Stock Exchange yesterday.
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