Stainless Steel

摘要

Though stainless steel transaction prices continue to increase in-China and Japan on account of firming nickel settlements on the LME, rising stock levels, shorter lead times, and ongoing import pressures brought transaction prices down in most other regions by the end of January. Whilst it is only in Western Europe that stainless demand is thought to have fallen in year-on-year terms - for 304 sheet - there is a general perception that stainless market fundamentals are beginning to slacken for nickel grades. This is particularly the case in the USA, where production growth has been exceeding the growth in demand for several months. Stainless steel apparent consumption through the first ten months of last year, for example, increased by 14 percent year-on-year to reach 1.9m tonnes, as a result of a 28 percent increase in finished product imports and a relatively paltry 7 percent rise in domestic shipments. Though domestic producers have clearly struggled to gain from the increasing demand in the USA - with importers delivering 30 percent more material to these new users than local suppliers in the year to October - stainless melted production in the USA has actually increased by 28 percent during the same period, to over 1.9m tonnes.