The previous Taiwanese investigation of anti-dumping and countervailing duties on five steel products imported from China led the market purchasers to import goods with a large quantity. Hot-rolled stainless steel coil and plate imports from China were more than 100,000 tons in May, set a six-year high. Now the market participants expected the conclusion for investigation would be postponed to the end of this year, and the current import volume returned to a normal quantity in June.

Another reason for the increase in purchases was cheap stainless steel products from Indonesia have entered the market recently. Some market participants said that Taiwanese factories have no advantage in raw materials and selling prices compared with Indonesian Tsingshan Holding Group.

Taiwanese steel mills were more pessimistic about the medium and long term impact because of the China-US trade war. The tariff barriers between countries would become a huge worry for Taiwan because the price could not increase once the export volume reduced.