Stainless Steel

摘要

While transaction prices of stainless grade 304 cold rolled sheet fell significantly in February in Europe and North America, on account of declining surcharges and further base price. reductions, Chinese domestic and import prices continued to increase. Despite these mixed outcomes regarding price, there appear to be broad similarities in international market fundamentals. Apparent consumption growth is perceived to be slowing, partly because inventory levels remain high, and forward order activity is consequently in decline, with buyers, particularly in Asia, now anticipating price reductions. With lead times shortening and raw material costs rising, however, it would appear that outside of Asia, reduced production rather than lowered prices will be the outlook of the next few months. Though demand appears to be improving in the USA - at least service centres are preparing for stronger seasonal demand even though mill lead times have actually fallen to 4-5 weeks - the inventory overhang built during the second half of last year continues to limit buying activity almost everywhere. In China, in particular, the start of the Lunar New Year tends to encourage heightened purchasing but with transaction prices now 30 percent up in year-on-year terms, the risks to building on already expensive inventories have become too great. Even in Western markets such as Italy, where alloy surcharges will rise by 69 euro/tonne (92 US dollars/tonne) in April, stockholders and buyers have made no obvious efforts to purchase surplus supplies in February. With inventory levels there appearing lower than in the higher-priced German and UK markets, it would seem that the European market in general will be particularly quiet during the next few months for nickel, if not other, stainless grades.