After Taiwan’s major HR supplier, Chung Hung Steel (CHS), announced that they would raise their price, steel pipe manufacturers, Yieh Phui (YP), Kao Hsing Chang (KHC) and Mayer also planned to raise their steel pipe price by NTD$1,500 to 2,000/ton in the domestic market.

The new hot roll steel welded pipe deal price this month is about NTD$19,500/ton on average which means that raising the hot roll coil price has also pushed up the welding pipe price in Taiwan.

Also, both CSC and CHS are unable to increase their HR material supply quantity until the end of 2009; the HR material shortage situation may cause these pipe mills to raise their prices easily in the next few months.