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strong pick-up in demand next year as clients in Europe stock up in anticipation of a further increase in prices. “The price of wire rods has gone up by more than 80% since early 2016 because China has cut back on steel production,” Chin Well group executive director Tsai Chia-ling said. “Customers expect the price of steel to continue to go up in 2017,” she added.

But a resurgence in demand may not be enough for the group to sustain its current production volume. Tsai said the group was reducing its production of industrial grade fasteners. “We expect to produce less than 100,000 tonnes of fasteners for the financial year 2017, which means that the per quarter output of fasteners for FY17 would be less than 25,000 tonnes,” she said.

The European market is expected to contribute about 50% of the group’s revenue for 2017, compared to 52% in 2016. On the group’s do-it-yourself (DIY) fastener business, Tsai said the plan was to broaden the range of DIY fasteners in 2017 to tap into new markets in Europe.