China’s domestic stainless steel prices have fluctuated slightly trend during the past week.
Global nickel prices have moved up by a small margin during the past week. On August 29, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $20,685/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 36,936 mt.
Overall trading activity in the domestic stainless steel market is again weak. Upstream nickel prices are still at relatively high levels, continuing to provide support for stainless steel spot market prices. However, since stainless steel futures prices recently have lately softened after increasing strongly in the previous week, most spot traders are holding a wait-and-see stance for now. Certain traders in order to close more deals have cut their quoted prices slightly at the end of the month, but most traders have kept their prices stable. As for the week ahead, considering that the support from the cost side is still strong and that demand may recover during September, it is believed that stainless steel prices may rise by a small margin.
|
Spec. - Grade (mm) |
Origin |
Price |
Weekly change |
||
|
(RMB/mt) |
($/mt) |
(RMB/mt) |
($/mt) |
||
|
202/No.1 (3.0 x 1,500 x C) |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
12,950 |
1,803 |
0 |
5 |
|
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
8,850 |
1,232 |
0 |
3 |
|
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
16,100 |
2,242 |
-50 |
-1 |
|
304/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
15,900 |
2,214 |
50 |
12 |
|
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Taigang |
8,300 |
1,156 |
0 |
3 |
|
430/No.1 (3.0 x 1,500 x C) |
Taigang |
7,300 |
1,016 |
0 |
3 |
13 percent VAT is included in the above prices.
$1 = RMB 7.182