2nd UPDATE: Taiwan China Steel Mulls Price Hikes For Jul, Aug
2009年6月3日 - 6:31PM
Dow Jones News
China Steel Corp. (2002.TW), 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.
-By Alex Pevzner, Dow Jones Newswires; 8862-2502-2557;
alex.pevzner@dowjones.com