China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), Taiwan’s largest steelmaker, on Thursday said that it is raising domestic steel prices by 8 percent on average for delivery next month, reflecting climbing steel demand worldwide and increased manufacturing costs due to higher raw material prices.
The Kaohsiung-based company is hiking prices for a 12th consecutive month, taking a cue from its Chinese counterparts Baosteel Group Corp (寶鋼) and Wuhan Iron and Steel Corp (武鋼), as well as Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corp (台塑河靜鋼鐵興業) in Vietnam.
Formosa Ha Tinh has raised steel prices by US$120 per tonne, CSC said.
Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters
“Global steel demand is picking up significantly due to a recovery in the world economy,” CSC said in a statement. “Tight steel supply and price hikes in raw materials, including coal, iron ore and shipping costs, have pushed global steel prices to historic highs.”
“High steel prices are becoming a new norm,” it said.
The company expects the uptrend to extend into next quarter.
Domestic steel prices have increased at a much slower rate than global steel prices, it said.
The price discrepancy has caused unusual exports of steel, causing domestic supply and demand imbalance, the company said.
“This has gone against the free-market mechanism,” CSC said.
The latest price hikes aim to alleviate mounting manufacturing costs as prices of global iron ore, which is used to make steel, have surged to an all-time high of US$229 per tonne, CSC said.
Global coal prices are also on the rise, it said.
Prices of mainstream hot-rolled steel and hot-roll steel plates are to rise by NT$2,300 (US$82.11) per tonne next month, while cold-roll steel prices are to climb by NT$2,500 per tonne, the company added.
The company is to raise prices for mid-to-low-grade electrical steel coils by NT$1,000 per tonne and NT$1,500 for high-end coils, while prices for hot-dipped zinc-coated steel coils used in home construction are to rise by NT$2,500 per tonne, it said.
The price uptrend helped CSC post a net profit of NT$9.03 billion in the first quarter, from losses of NT$2.26 billion a year earlier, or earnings per share of NT$0.58, up from losses per share of NT$0.15.
First-quarter revenue expanded 24.54 percent to NT$97.82 billion, from NT$77.92 billion in the same period last year.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
RSS