Posted on 19 Aug 2024
China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's largest steel mill headquartered in Kaohsiung in southern Taiwan, has decided to cut the list prices of its major carbon steel products for local sales in September by TWD 500-600/tonne ($15.5-18.6/t) to help its downstream customers improve their competitiveness in global markets, according to the company's latest release on its website.
The third quarter is usually the slow season for steel consumption in Asia, as demand from end-users is dampened for seasonal reasons, the company explained in the release. Meanwhile, abundant supplies of steel are also placing great pressure on the Asian steel market, it noted.
In order to help its customers win more orders from overseas buyers and to ease the impact of low-priced steel imports, CSC had decided to concede some margin in its steel list prices during business discussions for September in response to the weakness in the global steel market.
Earlier this month, major steel producers in the Chinese mainland had announced plans to trim their steel list prices for September sales, the integrated steel mill in Taiwan noted.
For example, Baoshan Iron & Steel Co, the listed-arm of the world's top steelmaker China Baowu Steel Group, has decided to cut the list prices of its carbon steel hot-rolled coils by Yuan 100/tonne ($14/t) for domestic sales in September, after having reduced its August list prices by the same margin, as reported.
However, CSC noted that global economic growth is stable with the cooling of inflation, and the latest forecast of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in July showed that the global economy may see on-year growth of 3.2% in 2024, with the prediction remaining unchanged from the IMF's previous forecast issued in April.
The company believes that the economy in Taiwan will grow steadily thanks to the better performance of emerging sectors such as artificial intelligence. At the same time, the local government has taken a series of measures to boost Taiwan's steel demand, such as implementing old-for-new subsidies in the white goods sector, and gradually increasing the proportion of local auto parts in vehicles to substitute imports.
CSC's price adjustments of selected products for Sept sales.
Product | Price Change (TWD/t) | Notes |
Hot-rolled coil | -600 | M-o-M |
Cold-rolled coil | -500 | M-o-M |
Electrolytic galvanized coil (fingerprint resistant/construction) | -500 | M-o-M |
Electrical steel coil | -500 | M-o-M |
Hot-dipped galvanized coil (for white goods, computers etc.) | -500 | M-o-M |
Source: CSC
Source:Mysteel Global
