According to statistics, Taiwan’s 300 series stainless steel hot-rolled coil imports amounted to around 181,400 tons in the first four months of this year, dropping by 25.6% compared to the same period a year ago. However, the average import price was up greatly by 39.3% year on year.

Among them, the imports from Indonesia totaled nearly 181,000 tons, accounting for 99.75% of Taiwan’s total imports, with a 38.5% higher average import price compared to the year-ago period.

Market participants said that Taiwan’s imports of these products from China had dropped significantly since China canceled export tax rebates last year. Therefore, Indonesia became the major source for Taiwan.

Meanwhile, due to higher international nickel prices and less competition of low-priced resources from China, the import price in the January-April period has hiked a lot.