Taiwan's steel imports significantly increased in August, despite a preliminary anti-dumping (AD) ruling against hot-rolled steel from China. According to statistics from the Ministry of Finance, total steel imports, including carbon steel, stainless steel, and special steel, amounted to around 388,000 tons in August, a month-on-month increase of 11.9%, especially carbon steel hot-rolled plates soaring by 42% to 83,500 tons.

Market participants believed that the surge was due to the previous significant appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar in May and June, which reduced the cost of foreign procurement. This led domestic steel companies to import more materials to lower costs.

In terms of exports, the volume grew by 33.3% month on month to 796,400 tons in August, driven by companies rushing to ship products before new US tariffs on steel and aluminum took effect.