Taiwan’s CSC Only Slightly Reduces Wire Prices for Q4 Disappointing Downstream Manufacturers
On August 26, Taiwan-based China Steel Corp. (CSC) announced that the domestic prices for wires in Oct. and Nov. will be only slightly reduced by NTD61 (-0.4%) per ton, disappointing a majority of the downstream manufacturers. Downstream manufacturers considered that CSC seemed to try to offset the potential loss that may be caused by the current depreciation of New Taiwanese Dollar with purposely keeping the prices higher than the real market price. Many publicly traded rolling and screw plants claimed that the comparatively high material price has made them lose competitive edge, so they have to cut down the volume of production as a reaction. By and large, the entire steel industry in Q4 will be in a ‘cold current” period.
The price of CSC’s new hot rolled wire is down NTD35 per ton; sheet metal down NTD82 per ton; cold rolled down NTD213; hot dip galvanized down NTD328. Wire rods mainly used by the fastener and tools industries, zinc plated and electro-magnetic steel plate remain unchanged.
One publicly traded rolling plant said that the current market situation is not actually good for the steel industry and the currently reported slump in global stocks markets also greatly hit the global economy. It is anticipated that the price of CSC’s hot rolled products may be down to USD20-30 per ton, which is favorable to the order acceptance of steel plants doing business with foreign companies. But that CSC almost did not change the price will be very unfavorable to the order acceptance in October and will definitely result in the decreasing demand for CSC’s steel products.
One director from a leading screw company said, “No one is going to buy if the price of CSC’s wire rods remains unchanged! It’s USD100 more expensive than the average international market price.” He also added that CSC always doesn’t set the right price at the right time, making us lose customers we originally should have kept in hand. It is even too late if it changes its mind to reduce the price. What’s worse, CSC does not reduce the price for Q4, damaging our competitive edge and increasing the weight of our buying materials from other countries.
