STAINLESS STEEL HIGHLIGHTS--Stainless demand and supply to continue to outperform steel

摘要

As we detailed last month, US service-centre sales have been dipping of late, albeit partly for seasonal reasons. Rather like for carbon steel products, stainless shipments fell sharply around thanksgivingthough in the year to November, growth has certainly been impressive at 6.9%, far outpacing all other steel product areas we track (see chart). The November slowdown, to just 2.1%year-on-year, we attribute in part to the rapid retreat in stainless prices for December delivery, driven down by faltering nickel, prime scrap, and (where applicable) molybdenum costs in this month's alloy surcharges.