Although some market players believe that stainless steel prices may rebound in the near future after decreases seen lately due to lower nickel prices and weak demand, no such sign has been seen so far supporting this forecast. Nickel prices have indeed showed a slight increase, though less than expected, not reaching price levels observed last January. As of June 14, nickel prices at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed the day at $16,775/mt for cash settlements.
On the other hand, Far Eastern stainless steel producers continue to cut their prices. Today, June 15, Chinese steel producer TISCO announced that it has reduced its austenitic stainless steel prices by $100/mt for June orders.
In the meantime, stainless steel import offers to Turkey from the Far East and Europe have indicated a slight increase. Accordingly, import offers to Turkey for 304/2B stainless steel cold rolled coil (CRC) of 2 mm thickness are now standing at $2,750-2,850/mt CFR. Market players see this slight price rise as an attempt by suppliers to test the market, adding that demand is not strong enough to back up this price increase move.
This week, the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) has announced that in the first quarter of 2012 world stainless crude steel output decreased by 2.8 percent year on year to 8.6 million mt.