China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s biggest steelmaker, yesterday said that it is planning another price hike for next month — the 11th consecutive month of increases — with the price of steel products for domestic delivery rising 8.1 percent on average.
The price of hot-rolled steel plates would increase NT$2,000 (US$70.47) per tonne, while the price of hot-rolled steel bars and wire rods would increase NT$2,500 per tonne, the company said.
The price of hot-rolled carbon steel would increase NT$2,000 per tonne; cold-rolled sheets and coils would increase NT$2,300 per tonne; and hot-dipped, zinc-galvanized sheets would increase NT$2,500 per tonne, it said, adding that the price of electrical sheets would increase NT$500 per tonne for low-to-medium-grade products and NT$1,000 per tonne for high-grade products.
Screen grab from China Steel Corp Web site
The planned price adjustments are smaller than the hikes elsewhere in the world and reflect its “moderate and steady” price policy, the state-owned company said.
Domestic steel prices are as much as US$100 to US$200 per tonne lower than international prices, with some mainstay products, such as rerolling quality steel, “possibly the cheapest of all the international markets,” the company said.
Steel prices in the US and Europe keep setting new records, with the price of European hot-rolled steel soaring to US$1,070 per tonne and the price of US hot-rolled steel reaching US$1,500 per tonne, while delivery dates are being pushed out to as late as the third quarter, it said.
Steel mills worldwide have seen steady demand, thanks to Washington’s US$2.3 trillion infrastructure program and Beijing’s 10.6 trillion yuan (US$1.6 trillion) infrastructure program, as well as many economies beginning to recover from the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, China Steel said.
“In Taiwan, domestic consumption, exports and investments are all up, meaning more demand for steel,” the company said.
China’s target to reach “peak carbon emission” by 2030 and “carbon neutrality” by 2060 last month forced the key steel-making town of Tangshan, Hebei Province, to begin to cut output so that it can meet the reduced emission standards, the company added.
However, China Steel warned that its production capacity cannot meet all of the domestic demand, saying that downstream businesses should “plan the booking of their orders and supplies accordingly.”
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