Research

Forecasts and market analysis based on price assessments from Fastmarkets MB and Fastmarkets AMM

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April 2018 | Stainless Steels


European mills increasingly offering discounts in bid to remain competitive: European Highlights


For May surcharges, the increase on grade 304 stainless steels, and indeed on most grades not containing molybdenum (which has fallen in price recently), will amount to some €20/tonne.

While there has been a notable pickup in volatility with regard to chrome and nickel prices over the past few weeks, Europe’s stainless steel market has remained relatively stable. Alloy surcharges for May are creeping upwards by small amounts but, almost completely offsetting that, base prices continue to weaken under the weight of sizeable inventories in Europe and increased import competition.

Firstly with regards to raw material costs, the ferrochrome contract price for Q2 was settled shortly after publication of our previous tracker. Prices have risen by slightly more than anticipated, and have been set at $1.42/lb chrome contained for Q2, up from $1.18/lb during Q1. This increase would typically translate into an increase in alloy surcharges on grade 304 material of almost $100/tonne (some €80/tonne as of writing), and we expect the chrome component of alloy surcharges to increase by roughly this amount over the course of...

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