China’s domestic stainless steel market has mostly moved down slightly in the past seven days.
Global nickel prices have risen sharply during the past week. On April 28, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $12,330/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 231,132 mt.
Overall trading activity in the Chinese domestic stainless steel market has improved and is at normal levels. Meanwhile, most traders are under pressure from tight liquidity near the end of the month, while they have been mostly cautious as prices had moved upwards during the previous two weeks. Accordingly, most traders have been willing to reduce their quoted prices by a small margin in order to close more deals. As for the week ahead, it is believed that stainless steel prices in China may follow a stable trend with some small upticks possible also, given the rebound seen in nickel prices and the improvement in demand.
Spec. - Grade (mm) |
Origin |
Price |
Weekly change |
||
(RMB/mt) |
($/mt) |
(RMB/mt) |
($/mt) |
||
202/No.1 (3.0 x 1,500 x C) |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
11,050 |
1,563 |
0 |
4 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
6,500 |
919 |
0 |
3 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
13,900 |
1,966 |
-100 |
-9 |
304/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
13,950 |
1,973 |
-100 |
-9 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
6,900 |
976 |
-100 |
-11 |
430/No.1 (3.0 x 1,500 x C) |
Taigang |
7,300 |
1,033 |
0 |
3 |
13 percent VAT is included in the above prices.
$1 = RMB 7.070