Asian Highlights

摘要

Stainless steel prices, at least for nickel-containing grades, have continued to falter during the past month, broadly as expected. The one exception to this pattern is within Japan, where local prices are beginning to rise on account of firm demand and, at least for now, limited competition from Korean exporters. Contrary to the trend everywhere else in the region, we believe that Japanese producers will be fully successful with their attempts to raise prices of CR 304 by Yen20/kg ($200/tonne) for August shipment, pushing them up to a minimum of 325/kg ($3,200/t) on a coil basis.