Spot Stainless Steel Prices to be Stable with Occasional Declines This Week

SHANGHAI, May 15 (SMM) - Stainless steel prices remained low last week, with spot #304 dipping about 150 yuan/mt WoW. Trades of spot cold-rolled coils (CRCs) for warrant delivery improved, and the stocks decreased greatly. But the overall hot-rolled coil (HRC) supply was ample. Last week, a stainless steel mill in east China reduced the shipments to the market, but another mill in east China carried a high HRC inventory. Recently, the downstream companies have weakened their demand for stainless steel to a certain extent, so the social inventory declined slowly. Prices of high-grade NPI grew last week as the stainless steel mills raised their purchase prices. And the NPI prices will run steadily in the short term on low supply held by traders. Ferrochrome prices moved with occasional ups on high chrome ore prices, but the actual transactions were sluggish. It is expected that the prices of ferrochrome may remain stable in the near term. SMM presumes that the spot stainless steel prices will be stable with some downward potential this week.