Feb 1, 2021

China Steel raises prices by 2.5 percent on average RECOVERING DEMAND: Rising raw material and shipping costs, as well as robust performance by downstream industries, contributed to the hike By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter China Steel Corp (CSC, 中鋼) yesterday said it would raise domestic steel prices by an average of 2.5 percent per tonne for delivery next month, citing rising raw material costs and recovering demand on the back of an improving economic outlook. The rising costs of iron ore, coking coal and some alloying elements, along with a shortage of containers and higher freight rates, are positive for the outlook of steel prices, the nation’s only integrated steelmaker said in a statement. CSC said its decision reflected recent price hikes by Chinese industry peers Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (寶鋼) and Anshan Iron and Steel Group Corp (鞍鋼). A truck drives past rolls of steel inside the China Steel Corp factory in Kaohsiung on August 26, 2016. Photo: Tyrone Siu, Reuters It also took into account the sound operating situation of domestic downstream industries, the company said. The price of hot-rolled steel plates would increase by NT$700 (US$24.66) per tonne, while the price of hot-rolled steel bars and wire rods would rise by NT$450 per tonne, the company said. A price hike of NT$700 per tonne would also apply to hot-rolled carbon steel, as well as cold-rolled sheets and coils, and hot-dipped, zinc-galvanized sheets, it said. The price of electrical sheets would rise by NT$2,000 per tonne for low to medium grade products, and rise by NT$2,500 per tonne for high-grade ones, CSC said. The company last week reported a pretax profit of NT$6.26 billion for the October-to-December quarter, the highest since the fourth quarter of 2018, with pretax earnings per share of NT$0.19. For the whole of last year, CSC’s pretax profit reached NT$2.77 billion, down 78.36 percent from NT$12.8 billion in 2019. That translated into pretax earnings per share of NT$0.19. CSC has raised domestic quotation prices every month since the fourth quarter of last year due to strong restocking demand for steel used in vehicles, home appliances and machinery, as well as rising raw material costs. The company said it expects market demand to remain solid this year, citing continued growth in Taiwan’s economy and a gradual recovery in the global economy following the rollout of vaccination programs against COVID-19 in the US and Europe. Comments will be moderated. Keep comments relevant to the article. Remarks containing abusive and obscene language, personal attacks of any kind or promotion will be removed and the user banned. Final decision will be at the discretion of the Taipei Times.