China's domestic stainless steel market has indicated slight decreases for prices of certain products in the past seven days, especially prices of 304 series products, while prices of other products have mostly moved sideways.
Global nickel prices have fluctuated on a slight downtrend during the past week. On January 5, the three-month nickel price at the London Metal Exchange (LME) closed at $8,550/mt, while LME nickel inventory on the same date totaled 441,510 mt.
Amid slack trading activity and with the approach of the Chinese Spring Festival/New Year holiday, traders have chosen to reduce their 304 series product prices slightly in order to attract more business. It is believed that the domestic stainless steel market may be characterized by a slight downticks in the coming period.
Specification (mm) | Region | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
202/No.1 (3.0 x 120 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 9,800 | 1,494 | 0 |
201/No.1 (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Foshan | Guangzhou Lianzhong | 5,900 | 899 | 0 |
304/2B (1.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 11,750 | 1,791 | ↓50 |
304/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 11,000 | 1,677 | ↓100 |
430/2B (3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Taigang | 6,600 | 1,006 | ↑50 |
430/No.1(3.0 x 1,219 x C) | Wuxi | Krupp | 6,200 | 945 | 0 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 17 percent VAT.
$1 = RMB 6.56