China’s domestic stainless steel market has continued to fluctuate by small margins in the past seven days.
Global nickel prices have softened by relatively significant margins during the past week. On July 17, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $13,490/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 243,638 mt.
Trading activity in the domestic stainless steel market has been at low levels in the past week. Prices of certain stainless products have risen slightly influenced by low market inventories and low production volumes cause by the recent typhoon in southern China. Prices of other products have softened slightly due to the decreases seen in upstream nickel prices. However, the size of both increases and decreases has been limited by the current sluggish off-season when price movements do not have much impact on demand levels. As for the coming week, it is believed that the stainless steel market may fluctuate on a slightly soft trend as support from the cost side is weaker.
Specification (mm) |
Region |
Steel plant/origin |
Price (RMB/mt) |
Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) |
Foshan/Lecong |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
10,000 |
1,488 |
↑100 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Foshan/Lecong |
Guangzhou Lianzhong |
8,500 |
1,265 |
↑100 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Wuxi |
Taigang |
16,000 |
2,396 |
↑100 |
304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Wuxi |
Taigang |
16,500 |
2,455 |
0 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Wuxi |
Taigang |
8,550 |
1,272 |
↓100 |
430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) |
Wuxi |
Krupp |
8,600 |
1,280 |
0 |
16 percent VAT is included in the above prices.
$1 = RMB 6.72
