Spot Stainless Steel Prices Rise Further Last Week on Supply Tightness

SHANGHAI, Apr 24 (SMM) - Spot #304 stainless steel prices rose about 450 yuan/mt last week. Spot arrivals in the market slowed down last week under the shipment control of stainless steel mills. The stainless steel market saw an unbalanced supply and demand structure. Stainless steel mills and the first-level agents held more stocks, while the spot stainless steel carried by the second-level agents and traders dropped to a low level. As a result, the spot supply of some specifications of 300-series stainless steel remained tight, and the prices grew more. The terminal companies bought stainless steel cautiously on unimproved demand. NPI plants generally raised their quotes, driving up high-grade NPI prices. The NPI traders were less willing to ship goods to stainless steel mills. In such a context, some stainless steel mills had to raise their purchase prices of NPI. The short-term NPI prices will stay stable. To sum up, prices of stainless steel continued to rise last week due to the rhythm of arrival, and the shipment volume stood low. SMM believes that the spot price of stainless steel may be stable with some drops this week.