Stainless steel prices in China have been on a slightly soft trend in the past week. Stainless steel prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Trading in the stainless steel market has been weak during the past week, as the downstream side started to wait and see. Most end-users are waiting for market prices to decrease a little bit in order to save on costs. Meanwhile, mills and traders are slow to reduce their prices, and may seek to increase their deal prices. In this situation, traders are cautious and are seeking to reduce orders from mills, while some traders have even canceled previous orders. Mills are under pressure from the previous high cost of raw material. In this context, big mills such as Lianzhong and Zhangpu have reduced their production volumes but this has not yet influenced the weak market. The export situation has been affected by the weakness of the global economic situation. The slightly soft trend in the market is expected to last for another while.