Nisshin Steel Raises Nickel Series Stainless Cold Flat by 70,000 yen/t

Nisshin Steel announced on Thursday the firm increases the selling price of nickel series stainless cold rolled flat steel by 70,000 yen per tonne for SUS304 grade base size with 2 millimeters thick for distributors for November order or January shipment. The firm increases the price by 60,000 yen for alloy surcharge and by 10,000 yen for base price. The firm increases the price by total 215,000 yen since March order. The firm increases the chrome series stainless cold flat products by 10,000 yen when the distributors’ inventory deceases and the demand keeps high. The firm increases the nickel series products through the mechanism to reflect price change of raw materials when nickel price increased from US$ 11.81 per pound in June-August to US$ 14.15 in August-October along with foreign exchange rate change. The firm tries to increase the base price as well when the distributors’ inventory keeps low level. The distributors’ inventory was 1.45 months of shipment for cold rolled stainless flat steel at the end of September, Japanese stainless coil centers’ association. The inventory rate kept less than 1.5 months for 2 months in a row though the appropriate level is said to be around 1.7 months. The supply is getting tighter when distributors have stock out items.