China Steel Corp (中鋼), the nation’s largest steelmaker, yesterday raised major steel product prices by NT$300 (US$9.71) per tonne for domestic deliveries next month, thanks to improving domestic demand from makers of vehicles, as well as computers and servers due to growing artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
Domestic steel consumption is poised to recover from the trough as inventory correction is nearing an end, the Kaohsiung-based steelmaker said in a statement.
The market outlook is positive, aided by the government’s NT$680 billion public infrastructure project, giving a further lift to steel demand, the company said.
Photo courtesy of China Steel Corp
“Market confidence is recovering. Inventory rebuild demand is poised to emerge,” China Steel said. “As the steel market is in the nascent stage of a recovery, the company is raising steel prices moderately to reflect increases in raw material costs and foreign exchange rate fluctuations.”
The global prices of coking coal and iron ore have hit the bottom and are poised for a rebound, China Steel said.
The price of iron ore has lingered at the bottom at about US$105 to US$115 per tonne, while the price of coking coal has recovered to between US$225 and US$235 per tonne, China Steel said.
Snapping two straight months of price reductions, China Steel raised the prices of hot-rolled steel plates, hot-rolled steel coils and cold-rolled steel plates by NT$300 per tonne.
It also increased the price of galvannealed steel coils used in construction by NT$300 per tonne, but kept the price unchanged for galvannealed steel coils used in home appliances and computers, as well as the price of electrical steel coils.
China Steel’s price hikes matched upward adjustments by its Chinese counterparts. Baowu Steel Group Ltd (寶武鋼鐵), the world’s biggest steelmaker, and Angang Steel Co (鞍山鋼鐵) raised the prices for hot-rolled, cold-rolled and galvannealed steel by 100 yuan (US$14) per tonne for deliveries next month, in a sign that global steel prices would go up further in the second half of this year, China Steel said in the statement.
That was the first price hike in four months by Baowu Steel and Angang Steel.
China Steel’s pretax profit in the first five months of the year plunged 93 percent to NT$1.72 billion from NT$24.6 billion during the same period last year, its filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange on June 26 showed.
The company attributed the decline to falling steel shipments, lower prices and gross margin erosion.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday obtained the government’s approval to inject an additional US$7.5 billion into its US subsidiary, the Department of Investment Review said in a statement. The department approved TSMC’s application of investing in TSMC Arizona Corp, which is engaged in the manufacturing, sales, testing and design of IC and other semiconductor devices, it said. The latest capital injection follows a US$5 billion investment for TSMC Arizona approved in June. The chipmaker has broken ground on two advanced fabs in Arizona with aggregated investments approved by the department totaling US$24 billion thus far. According to TSMC, the first Arizona
The lethal hack of Hezbollah’s Asian-branded pagers and walkie-talkies has sparked an intense search for the devices’ path, revealing a murky market for older technologies where buyers might have few assurances about what they are getting. While supply chains and distribution channels for higher-margin and newer products are tightly managed, that is not the case for older electronics from Asia where counterfeiting, surplus inventories and complex contract manufacturing deals can sometimes make it impossible to identify the source of a product, analysts and consultants say. The response from the companies at the center of the booby-trapped gadgets that killed 37
FRIENDLY TAKEOVER: While Qualcomm Inc’s proposal to buy some or all of Intel raises the prospect of other competitors, Broadcom Inc is staying on the sidelines Qualcomm Inc has approached Intel Corp to discuss a potential acquisition of the struggling chipmaker, people with knowledge of the matter said, raising the prospect of one of the biggest-ever merger and acquisition deals. California-based Qualcomm proposed a friendly takeover for Intel in recent days, said the sources, who asked not to be identified discussing confidential information. The proposal is for all of the chipmaker, although Qualcomm has not ruled out buying some parts of Intel and selling off others. It is uncertain whether the initial approach would lead to an agreement and any deal is likely to come under close antitrust scrutiny
SECURITY CONCERNS: The proposed ban on Chinese autonomous vehicle software and hardware would go into effect with the 2027 and 2030 model years respectively The US Department of Commerce today is expected to propose prohibiting Chinese software and hardware in connected and autonomous vehicles on US roads due to national security concerns, two sources said. US President Joe Biden’s administration has raised concerns about the collection of data by Chinese companies on US drivers and infrastructure as well as the potential foreign manipulation of vehicles connected to the Internet and navigation systems. The proposed regulation would ban the import and sale of vehicles from China with key communications or automated driving system software or hardware, said the two sources, who declined to be identified because the