Walsin Lihwa, a stainless steel wire rod and cable manufacturer in Taiwan, announced an increase of NT$2,500/ton in its 300 series stainless steel wire rod for November, NT$500 lower than Yieh United Steel Corp. (Yusco) and Tang Eng’s price hike in 304 cold-rolled and hot-rolled stainless steel products.

In addition, the surcharge of 316 products and welding rod steel was kept unchanged, and the price of 200 and 400 series was also flat.

Walsin Lihwa said the price adjustment was to moderately reflect production costs. The LME nickel price rose in October and prices of steelmaking raw materials such as nickel pig iron and stainless steel scrap remained high. Also, the electricity prices used in the industries in Taiwan started to increase this month.

The company added that the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER) estimated that Taiwan's economic growth rate in the fourth quarter of this year would rise by 0.15%, bringing a growth of 3.96% for the whole year, indicating a stable domestic economy.