China's domestic stainless steel market has moved on a stable trend during the past week.
Global nickel prices showed a fluctuating trend with slightly decrease in past week. On August 2, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $10,725/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 372,750 mt.
The main reasons why traders in the domestic stainless steel market chose not to reduce their prices at the end of the month of July but to keep them stable instead are the low market inventory levels and the desire of some traders to build up stocks ahead of September which is traditionally a good month for business. As for the coming week, it is believed that domestic stainless steel prices will remain mostly stable, with some slight fluctuations also possible.
Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 10,300 | 1,554 | 0 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 6,400 | 965 | 0 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 13,100 | 1,976 | 0 |
304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 12,650 | 1,908 | 0 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 7,100 | 1,071 | 0 |
430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 6,500 | 980 | 0 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.63