China’s domestic stainless steel market has indicated strong upward movement during the past seven days.
Global nickel prices have fluctuated on a slight uptrend in the past week. On November 2, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $10,410/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 363,024 mt.
The strong uptrend of domestic stainless steel prices has been mainly due to low supply in the market caused by traders holding on to their inventories. Downstream buyers have been somewhat confused by strong price increases and are mostly maintaining a wait-and-see stance as regards purchases, thereby contributing to the slackness of trading activity. Market players foresee that the upward trend of prices may not last long without support from demand, while traders will eventually need to start selling their inventories in order to bring in funds. As for coming week, it is thought that domestic stainless steel prices may move up further, though increase margins will be significantly smaller.
| Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
| 202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 10,100 | 1.494 | ↑400 |
| 201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 8,000 | 1.183 | ↑400 |
| 304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 15,200 | 2.249 | ↑900 |
| 304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 15,700 | 2.322 | ↑1.400 |
| 430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 8,700 | 1.287 | ↑500 |
| 430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 7,300 | 1.080 | ↑100 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.76