China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday said it would raise domestic prices by 1.2 percent to reflect higher manufacturing costs and rising steel demand after a two-month price freeze. The revised prices take effect next month.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, CSC raised steel prices straight for 12 months before freezing them last month, citing concerns for downstream companies, and advising them to use the price freeze to adjust their business needs and “prepare for changes that are to come.”
There has been a “short and healthy correction” to Asian steel prices, but the company anticipates a return to steel’s bull run.
Photo courtesy of China Steel Corp
The global steel market is expected to tighten ahead of the traditional “high season” of September and October, the company said.
The continued strength of Taiwanese exports and US and European infrastructure projects present other factors in boosting steel demand, it said.
“We anticipate that the basic infrastructure needs of the US and the EU should create global economic growth, raising demand for steel products,” it said.
“Considering the steady but strong overall direction of the steel market and the higher cost of ore and coking coal, we have adjusted the price for domestic delivery up by 1.2 percent in November,” it said.
Another factor that led the company to anticipate a rebound in international steel is the creation of new Chinese regulations set to meet their carbon neutrality goals.
“The Chinese government has mandated a reduction of crude steel for the second half of 2021 by 60 million tonnes,” the company said. “At the same time, they have raised export tariffs for chromite and high-purity pig iron to 40 percent and 20 percent respectively.”
The prices of hot-rolled steel plates and coils, cold-rolled and electroplated steel coils, and other steel products with monthly determined prices are to go up by NT$500 per tonne. Mid-quality electroplated steel coils will go up by NT$300 per tonne.
Steel products whose prices are adjusted on a quarterly basis will remain the same until the next meeting of the CSC pricing committee, which would meet next month and also discuss steel pricing that would take effect later in the year.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”