Nisshin Steel to Hike Ni Stainless Sheet by 35,000 yen/t

Nisshin Steel announced on Wednesday the firm increases the selling price of nickel series stainless cold rolled sheet steel by 35,000 yen per tonne for distributors for July-August order. The firm increases the chrome series cold rolled sheet by 20,000 yen. The firm tries to pass the higher cost for nickel and chrome under lower yen rate through the hike. The price hike is 9 times in a row for nickel series and 5 times in a row for chrome series since March 2006 and November 2006 respectively. Nisshin Steel offers the nickel series price in every 2 months. The firm reflects the raw materials price with the mechanism based on gap between previous 3 months average of nickel ingot price at London Metal Exchange and further 3 months past average along with yen rate gap. The firm offers the nickel series price based on gap between average US$ 21.80 per pound in April-June and US$ 20.80 in February-April. The firm also reflects the yen rate gap between 121.70 yen per US dollar in April-June and 119.92 yen in February-April. The firm said the chrome series stainless supply is tight due to bottleneck in the upper stream capacity. Ferrochrome quarterly price should increase to US$ 1 per pound of chrome in July-September compared with record US$ 0.9 for April-June. The firm tries to reflect the tight supply and higher cost to the selling price. The firm expects wide drop for nickel series stainless products for September-October order due to recent plunge of nickel ingot price.