China's domestic stainless steel market has fluctuated on a downward trend during the past seven days.
Global nickel prices have softened slightly during the past week. On August 18, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $10,360/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 454,974 mt.
The soft trend of nickel prices has contributed to the declines in Chinese domestic stainless steel prices in the past week. An additional factor has been the ongoing weakness of trading activity amid hot weather conditions. Market inventories have increased and so traders are willing to offer discounts or reduce their offer prices. As for the coming week, it is believed that domestic stainless steel prices may mostly follow a stable trend, with some slight downticks also possible.
Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 9,800 | 1,531 | ↓150 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 6,450 | 1,008 | 0 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 12,800 | 2,000 | ↓300 |
304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 12,250 | 1,914 | ↓150 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 6,100 | 953 | ↓100 |
430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 5,700 | 891 | 0 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.40