December 2018 | Stainless Steels
US stainless steel prices to fall further in January: American Highlights
It is often the tendency for the domestic mills to seek to raise base prices when adders are moving down, especially at this time of the year when they are concluding negotiations on long term contracts
January surcharge decline is even steeper that predicted
With the first quarter contract price for ferrochrome declining 9.7% to $1.12/lb. from $1.24/lb. in the fourth quarter and LME nickel prices, following much of the rest of the base metals complex down, US stainless steel products will be seeing more across-the-board declines in alloy surcharges, and therefore transaction prices in January. We estimate that surcharges for grade 304 stainless steel will fall by about 10% month on month to approximately $0.56/lb., while we estimate that the adders for grade 316 stainless will fall about 7% to approximately $0.83/lb. Surcharges for grade 430 stainless will also see a fall of around 7%, to some $0.28/lb. We believe that this could be the bottom with early indications that nickel is starting to stabilize, helped by slightly premature speculation related to future increases in electric vehicle demand. ...
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