Chinese steelmaker Taiyuan Iron and Steel (TISCO) has announced its export stainless steel list prices for June shipments. Accordingly, the producer has kept its ferritic prices stable as compared to price levels for May deliveries, while it has revised its austenitic material prices upward by $200/mt. The most important reason behind prices moving up is the uptrend recorded in nickel prices. Nickel prices, which had increased to 17,800/mt as of April 14, softened slightly yesterday, April 15, and are now standing at $17,345/mt. Despite this slight decline, nickel prices, which were at the level of $15,800/mt in mid-March, have registered an increase of almost $2,000/mt over the past month.
In the meantime, TISCO's price hike of $200/mt may be found to be on the high side in the stainless steel markets following the $50/mt increase announced this week by Chinese mill Baosteel, and TISCO may be willing to give certain discounts on its list prices.
TISCO's base prices, which are for June shipments, are as follows:
Product | Price ($/mt) FOB | Monthly price changes |
304 2B 2 mm stainless CRC | 2,750 | +200 |
304 2B 3 mm stainless HRC | 2,620 | +200 |
430 2B 2 mm stainless CRC | 1,390 | - |
430 2B 3 mm stainless HRC | 1,260 | - |