Research

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

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November 2018 | Stainless Steels


Prices to continue falling for remainder of 2018: European Highlights


The dynamics behind the market pullback remain much the same as those outlined last month – falling alloy prices (and thus falling alloy surcharges), a slowdown in demand growth, and a continued high availability of cheap import material, all amid a backdrop of investor concerns about heightened trade tensions and tightening monetary policy in most regions of the world.

The pessimism that we demonstrated in our previous issue appears to have been well-founded. European stainless steel prices have continued to slide in recent weeks, with prices for November delivery set to fall and further cuts widely expected for December as well.

The dynamics behind the market pullback remain much the same as those outlined last month – falling alloy prices (and thus falling alloy surcharges), a slowdown in demand growth, and a continued high availability of cheap import material, all amid a backdrop of investor concerns about heightened trade tensions and tightening monetary policy in most regions of the world. While an outright collapse in prices is not expected, we believe that stainless steel prices will remain subdued in Europe until at least February of next year.

Firstly turning our attention to alloy costs, both chrome and nickel prices have weakened in recent weeks. Contract prices of ferrochrome fell...

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