Nisshin Steel to Cut Ni Stainless Sheet Supply for Dealers

Nisshin Steel announced on Monday the firm expands the order acceptance reduction for nickel series stainless sheet from distributors from current 30-50% to 80-100% for June order. The firm tries to reduce the distributors’ inventory for better supply balance. The firm could reduce the output at Shunan works from current full capacity operation. Nisshin Steel sees the distributors wait and see the nickel ingot market when the market plunged recently after the extremely high in May. The firm tries to reduce the increasing distributors’ stock for better market condition. The firm could reduce the output depending on the inventory condition. Japanese stainless coil centers’ inventory increased by 3.4% to 113,385 tonnes at the end of April from March while the sales volume decreased by 6.7% to 60,197 tonnes. The inventory rate for the sales increased to 1.88 months, which was more than normal level of 1.7 months, after the increases for 8 months in a row. Nisshin Steel is also cautious when Japanese stainless cold flat steel import reached 10,000 tonnes including more than 1,000 tonnes from China in April.