Posted on 29 Feb 2024
Yieh United Steel Corp (Yusco), Taiwan's largest stainless steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung in South Taiwan, has decided to continue its policy of 'individual' price negotiations for sales in March so that it can monitor any market changes during the coming month, Mysteel Global learned.
Consequently, for business discussions in March, Yusco will continue to negotiate sales prices with the customers individually instead of nominating list prices for specific major stainless products. This will make for the third consecutive month for the stainless giant to adopt such a pricing measure, as reported.
Yusco's decision has surprised market insiders as they had earlier expected that this month leading stainless producers in Taiwan would likely hike their stainless list prices for March sales in response to higher offering prices of mills in both Indonesia and mainland China.
For example, the price of 304/2B 2mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi, a major stainless trading hub in East China's Jiangsu province, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 14,750/tonne ($2,049/t) in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT as of February 27, up by Yuan 150/t on month and by Yuan 300/t from the recent low on February 21.
Meanwhile, global nickel prices rebounded in late February, lifting the production costs of stainless producers and lending some support to stainless prices, Mysteel Global noted.
On Tuesday, three-month nickel futures on the London Metal Exchange closed at $17,460/t, higher by $1,191/t from the end of January, according to the exchange's data.
Some steel users in Taiwan believe that Yusco's actual stainless sales prices for March may increase accordingly, considering the higher production costs and the climb in global stainless prices, according to a local market source.
Source:Mysteel Global
