China's domestic stainless steel market has indicated some downticks in prices in the past seven days, though with most prices moving sideways.
During the past week, global nickel prices initially moved down and then later started to rebound. On November 24, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $8,775/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 411,984 mt.
Chinese domestic stainless steel prices have showed a relatively stable trend in the past week, though with slight decreases in prices of certain products. Despite the rebound in nickel prices in the latter part of the past week, traders are unwilling to raise their stainless steel quotations as overall trading activity in the market is still weak. Demand is unlikely to improve due to the arrival of colder weather. As for the coming week, it is thought that just very minor fluctuations in domestic stainless steel prices may be seen.
Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 9,800 | 1,534 | 0 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 6,000 | 939 | ↓100 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 12,050 | 1,886 | ↓100 |
304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 11,400 | 1,784 | 0 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 6,250 | 978 | 0 |
430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 6,500 | 1,017 | 0 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.39