One week after Taiwan’s major upstream stainless steel mills announced prices for February, the market players concluded that the price was around NT$1,000/ton higher than that in January, and the difference of ex-work prices from various steel mills was around NT$500-800/ton, depending on the order volume.

China’s stainless steel market started the New Year holiday, so most steel mills and distributors stopped offering quotations.

Most steel mills in Taiwan have had full bookings for orders for their target volume. How to make the market accept the increased costs will be a challenge for the market after the New Year holiday. The current market price hasn’t fully reflected the increased costs from the mills.