China’s domestic stainless steel market has followed a slight downward trend for some products during the past week, while prices of other products have remained stable.
In the past week, global nickel prices first moved down by significant margins but then started to indicate some upticks. On June 30, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $11,980/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 456,438 mt.
Overall trading activity in the Chinese domestic stainless steel market has remained slack in the past week. Sentiment among traders in the market is very weak due to the declines which have been observed in nickel prices. As for the coming week, the local Chinese stainless steel market is expected to indicate further slight decreases.
| Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
| 202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 10,700 | 1,726 | ↓200 |
| 201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 7,000 | 1,129 | ↓100 |
| 304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 13,900 | 2,242 | ↓100 |
| 304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 13,800 | 2,226 | 0 |
| 430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 6,900 | 1,113 | 0 |
| 430/BA (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 6,300 | 1,016 | 0 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.20