Taiwanese Steel Mill Announces Price Rise

CSC To Increase By Over $60 A Tonne

Taiwan’s largest steelmakers, China Steel Corporation (CSC), Taiwan`s largest has announced that it expects to raise the prices of its major products to be shipped in June.

CSC has accepted a 90% price hike in its iron ore supplies, effective from April 1 while prices for coke have risen by 55%. CSC estimates that steel refinery costs have risen by between US$170 and US$200 per metric ton and has announced that a price rise of $62.89 per tonne for goods to be shipped in June.

Despite the increase, CSC claims that its hot-rolled steel prices are still lower than those from steel mills in other Asian countries with current quotes at $605 per tonne, some $90-140 a tonne lower than those from China, Japan and Korea.

Formosa Plastics Secures Vietnam Iron Ore Supplies

Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group, has said that it has secured iron ore supplies for its planned Vietnamese steel mill.

An un-named official from the company says it has signed a letter of intent for an annual supply of 12 million metric tonnes from BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Vale.

The supply is scheduled to start from 2013, when the Vietnamese steel complex begins operations.

The group will invest 280 billion Taiwan dollars (nine billion US dollars) in a steel complex with an initial annual capacity of 7.5 million tonnes in central Vietnam’s Ha Tinh province.

Construction is planned to begin soon after Vietnamese authorities transfer the land needed for the steel plant, which they have committed to do by the end of April.

Formosa Plastics Group has interests in petrochemicals, semiconductors and biochemicals.

China Steel To Maintain Australia Coal Imports

Zhong Yuemin, executive vice president from China Steel Co.(CSC) claimed on November 17 that the company’s 75% of coal demand would be imported from Australia.

He also said that CSC still hoped to achieve the diversity of the coal resource, however, in view of issues such as shipping cost, supply stability and port facilities, coupled with the port congestion in Queensland of Australia, the company will continue to maintain the aforesaid ratio.

According to the annual report from CSC, the imports of the company’s steel-making coking coal reduced by 5.1% to 8.1mln tons in 2008 from that in 2007. Although the data has not been announced in 2009, Zhong Yuemin stated that coking coal imports may keep the same level in 2009 as 2008.

He also said that CSC’ s 77.4% and 15% of coal demand imported from Australia and Canada correspondingly and 90% of coal purchased though long-term contract.

CSC has four blast furnaces into operation, with a total capacity of 10mln tons annually.

Dragon Steel Corporation, the company’s wholly-own subsidiary is building two 2.5mln tons of blast furnaces, one of which is estimated to put into production in February of 2010.

Zhong Yuemin pointed out, CSC has started to build coal inventory for the aforesaid blast furnaces, and planned to use coking coal furnaces by the end of this month to supply steel-making blast furnaces coal.

However, the coal imports of CSC will not rise sharply, as the company will suspend its No.1 blast furnace for six-month maintenance from the January of 2010, with 1.9mln tons annual capacity.

He added that if all things go well, the company’s coal imports may rise in H2 of 2010.

Calculated by revenue, CSC is the largest steel manufacturing enterprise in Taiwan.

Source: Alibaba

Taiwan Coal Imports Increase In July

Taiwan imported 6.05 million metric tons of coal in July, up 13% from a year earlier and up 16% from July, mainly due to a lower base of comparison for coking coal, the Bureau of Energy said in a monthly report Wednesday.

Imports of thermal coal, used in power generation, were also up - 11% - from a year earlier to 5.02 million tons in August, likely due to inventory replenishment by the Formosa Plastics Group. Imports of coking coal, used in steelmaking, rose 41.5% to 334,450 tons, the bureau said.

In August, thermal coal importers paid an average of $83.78 per ton, cost and freight, up 0.7% from July but down 39% on year.

The price of coking coal, cost and freight, fell 58% from a year earlier to US$121.86/ton, and was down 8.6% from July.

Source and further data: Trading Markets

China Steel Announces Price Hike

Taiwan's top steel maker, China Steel, announced that it will introduce a rise in its domestic product prices by 8.6 percent in October-November from September, amidst recovery of demand from the global economic meltdown.

It was after the firm's biggest increase in a year in September that the rise came; and it was roughly in line with market expectations of an 8 percent rise.

As per some of the analysts, the prices could be hiked further by China Steel, since re-stocking demand by competitors in Europe and the United States outweighed the Chinese rival's expected price cuts.

An analyst at First Global Securities Investment Trust said: "Globally, the pressure of an industry-wide inventory correction will not be huge. We are positive about the sector's outlook throughout the first half of next year."

A number of big Chinese steel mills scrapped their produce prices for September sales by up to 19 percent from their August levels, in the beginning of this week, as spot prices continued to fall on weak demand, specified industry consultancy Umetal.

It continued, "The price cuts come as Chinese spot steel prices languish amid concerns that tighter bank lending, the government's crackdown on overcapacity in the steel industry and record output, may end the months-long price rally."

Before this, China Steel hiked its products by 9.4 percent for September, its biggest increase in a year

Source: Top News, Singapore

China Steel Mulls Price Rises, Announces Iron Ore Deal

China Steel Corp. Taiwan's largest steel producer by revenue, is considering raising the price of domestic products for July and August, Executive Vice President L.M. Chung said Wednesday.

"Demand has picked up and supply will fall," Chung told Dow Jones Newswires.

The company will hold a price meeting next Wednesday. If prices are raised, it would be the first hike for the company since the last quarter of 2008.

The company's downstream customers have raised their resale prices, and "we will reflect that," he said, but declined to be more specific on prices.

China Steel shut its 2.8-million-metric-ton-a-year No. 3 blast furnace in mid- April for maintenance and will shut its 1.9-million-ton-year No. 1 blast furnace in November, Chung said.

The resulting reduced supply will also help put a floor under prices, Chung added.

China Steel lowered prices for the first quarter by a record 22.56% versus the fourth quarter. It also cut prices by 14.03% in the April-May period versus the first quarter, and by 9.41% for June compared with the April-May period.

Since it is company practice to give price rebates for the previous quarter if cuts are planned for the subsequent quarter, each round of cuts effectively means an additional price cut for the previous period.

China Steel posted a net loss of NT$7.18 billion in the quarter ended March 31 and a net loss of NT$15.45 billion in the last quarter of 2008.

In a research note Wednesday, Credit Suisse forecast China Steel's loss would narrow to NT$233 million in the current quarter thanks to cheaper raw materials and recovering shipments.

In a statement Wednesday, China Steel said it agreed with Rio Tinto PLC (RTP), the world's second-biggest producer of seaborne iron ore, on a 33% cut for fine ore and a 44.4% cut for lump ore for the 2009 contract year.

Chung said although the contract year starts Apr. 1, the company would continue using higher-priced ore through September because of carry-over deliveries from last year.

He said the company was still negotiating with the other two major suppliers of iron ore - Brazil's Vale S.A. (VALE) and Anglo-Australian BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP), the world's biggest and third-biggest producers of seaborne iron ore, respectively.

Chung said the company expects a "similar" price cut from BHP and a larger cut from Vale because of the higher shipping costs involved.

China Steel normally uses about 15 million-16 million tons of iron ore annually, with each of the three majors supplying about a third of its needs, said Chung.

SourcE: CNN