SS Contract Rebound after Six Consecutive Losses, and Spot Transactions Remain Poor amid High Inventory Pressure

SHANGHAI, Mar 6 (SMM) - The SS contract kept dropping last week but bounced back last Friday. On the news front, a large stainless steel mill in east China planned to reduce billet production last weekend, which will boost market sentiment to a certain extent. In the spot market, according to SMM research, the social inventory of 300-series stainless steel in the Wuxi and Foshan markets fell slowly last week, with hot-rolled coil inventory dropping more, because of the stainless steel mills’ shipment control and the rigid demand from the industrial sectors. With the production reduction of cold-rolled coils and the shipment control of spots, the short-term oversupply of stainless steel may be alleviated to a certain extent. The spot prices are expected to be stable with some upward potential. In terms of cost, the prices of high-grade NPI dropped somewhat as traders who got a high inventory of spots intended to dump their goods. Besides, the stainless steel mills cut their purchase prices. It is expected that the NPI prices will be stable with occasional falls in the short term. High-carbon ferrochrome prices rose slightly. Tsingshan disclosed the bid price in March first, but the bids of other mainstream stainless steel mills were carried out relatively slowly, arousing a strong wait-and-see sentiment among market players. Short-term ferrochrome prices will be stable. To sum up, the high spot inventory of stainless steel declined slightly last week, and favourable macro policies have been frequently issued. SMM expected that the prices of the SS contract may fall this week.