Shandong kicks off provincial environmental probes

"Interpreting Global Nickel and Indonesia Stainless Steel Industries: Supply-Demand Dynamics and Outlook"Stainless Steel Industries**

Indonesia produced 117,900 mt (Ni content) of NPI in March, up 3.51% MoM and 23.9% YoY. In Q1, output rose 19% YoY to 353,700 mt in nickel content. Caused by the limited RKAB approval, smelters are still purchasing nickel ore at a high premium. However, tight supply of nickel ore pushed raw material inventory to fall in March. Considering Lebaran in April, the output of high-grade NPI in April is expected to be 121,000 mt in nickel content, a slight increase of 2.66% MoM. If RKAB approval is still slower than expected, NPI output will be influenced in the future.

As of last Friday, the average price of 8-12% high-grade NPI was 954.8 yuan/mtu (ex-factory, including tax), down 3.2 yuan/mtu WoW. Supply side, even though the approved nickel ore quota is increasing, it still takes time for the nickel ore to move from the mine to the smelter. As a result, the current operating rate of NPI producers remains low. Stainless steel and stainless steel scrap prices kept dropping. High-grade NPI is still more cost efficient than stainless steel scrap. The terminal need for stainless steel stayed low, failing to boost the high-grade NPI prices. As a result, it causes a build-up in inventory and is expected to keep NPI prices low.

Recently, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine has caused many worries in the financial market. With the further aggravation of the situation, both domestic and foreign nickel prices have risen sharply, among which SHFE nickel prices have once again been set a record high.

China imported 4.01 million mt of nickel ore and its concentrate in November, a decrease of 10% from the previous month and a year-on-year increase of 12%, According to General Administration of Customs.

China's automobile production and sales were 2.04 million units and 2.13 million units, down 8.7% and 5.5% month on month respectively, and falling 6.8% and 3.1% year on year.

A water inrush accident occurred at the Dahongcai iron ore mine in Daixian County, Shanxi Province on June 10, leaving 13 people trapped, according to preliminary estimate.

Operating rates of blast furnaces at steel mills fell 1.2 percentage points from a week ago and decreased 0.9 percentage point from a month ago to 85.7% as of May 27, SMM survey showed.

According to the SMM survey that covers 102 blast furnace steel mills, 42.2% of them are undertaking maintenance or have trimmed output (excluding mills that reduced output by adjusting rates of equipment utilisation and raw material ratios), down from a ratio of 50% last week, as some long steel mills have recovered production from maintenance.

The major steelmaking hub in north China’s Hebei province will activate an orange alert for heavy air pollution for three days