Chinese domestic stainless steel prices have mostly indicated downticks in the past week as nickel prices continued to fluctuate at low levels. Global nickel prices have seen minor fluctuations during the past week, with prices now the same as one week ago. On November 19, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $13,630/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 244,938 mt.
Trading activity is still slack in the local Chinese stainless steel market. Supply volumes are high, especially from the small private sector mills. The prices of these smaller mills are lower than prices from other suppliers and contribute to the softness of prices in the overall market. At the same time, the production costs of Chinese stainless steel producers have not decreased. As for the coming week, if nickel prices start to trend up, then the domestic stainless steel market may begin to follow a stable trend or even indicate a rebound.