According to market sources, after a month-long uptrend, nickel prices have increased compared to last week. The cash and settlement nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME), which had closed at $18,736/mt on June 26, closed at $19,800/mt on July 3. Market sources report that prices of local production and imported stainless steel in Turkey are also expected to increase if nickel prices continue their uptrend and exceed $20,000/mt threshold.
Ex-China offers for prime quality ready stock 304/2B stainless steel CRC of 2.0 mm thickness have remained unchanged since last week and are still at $2,800-2,900/mt CIF Turkey. After resisting the downtrend in nickel prices for a long time, ex-Taiwan offers have softened by $100/mt to $3,000-3,100/mt, following the $151/mt price cut announced by YUSCO at the start of July. Meanwhile, stainless steel prices in the Turkish domestic market have remained unchanged at $3,100-3,200/mt ex-works over the past week.