Research

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

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June 2019 | Stainless Steels


Abundant supply, weak demand keeps prices capped: Asian Highlights


Stainless steel is lacking the appropriate support from the still-recovering housing market.

In China, producers are expected to maintain their production rates despite margin pressure and weak downstream demand. Evidently, raw steel material costs continue to bear down on producer margins, as iron ore and coking coal costs are still relatively high on supply side issues, while sales of automobiles in May extended their weak performance from April with a greater year-on-year decline. Although China's manufacturing PMI is forecast to stabilize in June, at 49.5, 0.1 point stronger than May’s reading, it is likely to remain below the neutral 50 mark. The forward-looking components of China's manufacturing PMI show no relief on the horizon.

To a degree the...

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