SHANGAHI, Feb. 24 (SMM) -- Today, mainstream offers of EMM were in the RMB 14,600-14,800/mt range, and some producers even kept offers in the RMB 14,800-15,000/mt range, with sluggish transactions. Producers constantly raised offers due to stable costs and expectation of purchases from stainless steel mills, so offers climbed up steadily.

According to SMM sources, most downstream stainless steel mills haven't resumed production yet, so they didn't begin to make purchases in the market. Tender prices from some large steel mills were not favorable. According to a market insider, Bao Steel has already completed biding, and the unfavorable tender prices make some market players lose confidence in market outlook in March. Traders gradually adopted a wait-and-see attitude due to unclear market trend at present.

SMM believes that current increases of EMM offers were mainly propelled by psychological expectation that purchases will increase in the market rather than propelled by the actual demand from the market. In this context, SMM believes that whether domestic EMM prices can grow stably or not shall depend on the changes of costs after the Chinese New Year Holiday as well as the real demand of stainless steel.

To contact the writer on this report: jianghanmei@smm.cn

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