Latest Stainless Steel News 9/04/2010

Fri 9 Apr 2010

TISCO holds local stainless prices

China's leading stainless steel producer, TISCO, is holding its 304 and 430 domestic prices this week. Market observers note that the steelmaker is leaving prices unchanged to allow the market to absorb the price increase it made a week ago.

This leaves TISCO's prices for grade 304 3-12mm hot rolled coil and 2B 2mm cold rolled coil at RMB 24,120/tonne ($3,533/t) and RMB 25,620/t ($3,753/t) respectively, while those for 430 CRC 2B will stay at RMB 13,270/t ($1,944/t). All prices include 17% VAT. Buying interest has also been spurred by the rise in prices of stainless, nickel and other steelmaking raw materials.

Korean re-roller lifts domestic stainless prices for April

Korean stainless steel re-roller BNG Steel has decided to raise its domestic prices of austenitic and ferritic stainless cold rolled coil by KRW 370,000/tonne ($328/t) and KRW 195,000/t ($173/t) respectively for April deliveries.

BNG's new price for grade 304 CRC (2mm) climbs to KRW 4.619m/t ($4,101/t) and that for grade 430 CRC increases to KRW 2.875m/t ($2,553/t) retroactive from 1 April. This follows the decision of Posco, Korea's only supplier of stainless hot rolled band, to raise its domestic prices to offset higher raw materials costs including nickel and chrome.

TK increases stainless base prices in North America

Global steel maker ThyssenKrupp has announced a base price increase on all 200, 300 and 400 series stainless coldrolled products in the North American market.

The price increase consists of a two discount-point reduction and is effective with shipments beginning May 3.

One stainless distributor pointed to recently announced surcharge hikes of around 20% and slack demand as evidence against an industry-wide base price hike. Another bulk buyer of stainless coil pointed out that slack demand may actually be generating momentum for a short-term price increase.

Back to news