Outokumpu sees improvement in stainless steel demand during Q1 2015

Although the downstream stocking is about to end, the spot stainless steel prices in Foshan rose more than expected last week.

On 13 December, Baosteel Desheng took the lead in issuing the Initiative on Jointly Maintaining the Order of the 200-Series Market and Regulating Market Behaviour and committed to cut the output of 200-series products from the perspective of balancing market demand and supply, by maintaining only one blast furnace in production by March 2022 in an effort to scale back the overall supply by more than 60%.

A series of events in the stainless steel market has led to violent price volatilities last week.

The news of production cut triggered strong bullish sentiments in the futures market, and SHFE SS 2110 contract rose to the daily limit last Monday.

Taiwan will undertake anti-dumping anti-subsidy investigations on certain steel products imported from China, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce.

Nickel pig iron (NPI) is likely to account for close to 60% of the raw material supply for stainless steel from 2019, according to senior analyst of nickel at SMM, Wang Cong.

Stainless steel mills said they have little inventory pressure after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday, SMM learned.

While the LME nickel price is likely to go up further to $13,800-14,000/mt as stainless steel mills continued to restock, SMM believes there is downside risk around March and April

China reported high exports of stainless steel in June, according to China Customs, nearing 400,000 tonnes. 

One stainless steel mill in north China released its benchmark procurement price for high-grade NPI for May at 830 yuan per mtu (price to factory, including tax, by cash), SMM learns.