Post-holiday resumption of work is slow, stainless steel scrap prices remain stable with potential for increase [SMM stainless steel scrap market weekly review]

This week, the price of 304 stainless steel scrap off-cuts in east China remained stable, quoted at 9,600-9,700 yuan/mt; in Foshan, the same specification of stainless steel scrap off-cuts rose slightly, with a price range of 9,500-9,800 yuan/mt. From the raw material production cost perspective, the current cost of producing stainless steel entirely using stainless steel scrap is approximately 13,417.11 yuan/mt, while the cost of using entirely high-grade NPI is 14,551.22 yuan/mt.

This week, stainless steel scrap prices maintained stable operation. As the first week after the Chinese New Year holiday, the market was in a gradual recovery phase, with some stainless steel scrap yards and downstream enterprise practitioners still on holiday leave, resulting in a slow return-to-work progress. This led to low market trading activity, with overall weak transactions during the week, not yet returning to normal levels, and full resumption of work still requiring some time. On the futures side, stainless steel futures fluctuated higher this week driven by market sentiment and macro factors, coupled with the continued fermentation of relevant policy news from Indonesia, further strengthening expectations of tightening raw material supply, driving a significant increase in high-grade NPI prices and strong market bullish sentiment. However, due to the lag in recovery, transactions in the stainless steel scrap market have not fully recovered, and quotations remained stable, without fluctuating in sync with futures and high-grade NPI prices. From a cost-economy perspective, the advantage of stainless steel scrap relative to high-grade NPI further expanded this week, providing support for subsequent price trends. Additionally, domestic stainless steel mills' production schedules for March increased significantly, combined with rising expectations for the traditional peak consumption season of "Golden March, Silver April," downstream demand is expected to gradually release, and stainless steel scrap procurement demand will increase accordingly. Overall, this week, the stainless steel scrap market presented a pattern of "slow recovery, weak transactions, stable prices." Subsequently, with the full resumption of market operations and gradual recovery of demand, coupled with cost advantages and peak season expectations, stainless steel scrap prices are expected to gradually strengthen.