Stainless steel prices kept falling amid sluggish transaction and high production

SHANGHAI, Mar 23 (SMM)— The stainless steel spot price fell slightly and stabilised last week. Some merchants entered the market to make purchases, and market transaction improved from the previous week. Tsingshan Hongwang announced that the futures price dropped by 300 yuan/mt, but the spot market price was little impacted.

As of March 19, the price of 304 cold rolled coil stablised at 15,100-15,500 yuan/mt. Some hot-rolled stainless steel arrived last week, and the previously high prices started to fell. The price gap between the hot and cold-rolled stainless steel narrowed from 200 yuan/mt to zero. The average prices of 304 hot-rolled products was lowered by 200 yuan/mt to 15,100-15,300 yuan/mt.

The market supply of 201 cold-rolled stainless steel was sufficient, but steel mills raised the futures prices by 50 yuan/mt. As of March 19, the average price of 201 cold-rolled coil was 8,600 yuan/mt. Prices for the 430 series remained stable.

SS contract price stabilised, basis remained over 1,000 yuan/mt

Prices of stainless steel and raw materials were stable last week. Based on the full cost, the loss on the daily raw material prices was about 270 yuan/mt.

Inventories of stainless steel by region

As of mid-March, the total social inventory of stainless steel was about 930,000 mt. The inventory of 300 series stainless steel dropped 6,000 mt from end-February, the inventory of 200 series products increased by 42,000 mt, and the inventory of 400 series products increased by 5,000 mt to 94,000 mt.

The inventory of 300 series stainless steel did not see a significant increase, and the overall demand was high, so the prices were supported by the cost of raw materials. However, the lack of bullish news and low nickel prices will affect the stainless steel prices, which is expected to stabilise with small fluctuations.

For more information on the nickel industry and markets, please subscribe to China Nickel Weekly.