NSSC Lowers Ni Series Flat Stainless Steel Prices in July

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation (NSSC) announced on Monday the firm revises down the selling price of cold-rolled nickel series stainless steel sheet and the contract price of nickel series stainless steel plate by 25,000 yen per tonne in July for domestic wholesalers. The price down reflects lower averaged nickel price at London Metal Exchange (LME) in June compared with May. As to cold-rolled chrome series stainless steel sheet, NSSC decreases the base price by 10,000 yen per tonne.

NSSC’s selling price becomes 350,000 yen per tonne for Ni series cold rolled sheet and 265,000 yen per tonne for Cr series cold sheet. The base prices will be set unchanged for August shipment. Ni series cold sheet price lowers for 2 months in a row by total 65,000 yen. Averaged LME nickel price was US$ 8.79 per pound in June, down by US$ 1.19 from May and by US$ 3.02 from April.

Domestic consumers of Ni series stainless sheet are currently in wait-and-see mood after speculative purchasing with an expectation for higher nickel price. Meanwhile, sheet wholesalers are trying to raise the reselling price since they haven’t passed higher cost price enough yet. At overseas, stainless steel makers have already moved to lower the selling price of Ni series sheet and some makers even announced output reductions.

As to stainless steel plate, the demand is stable from offshore seawater desalination plants and chemical tankers. Domestic sales of hot-rolled stainless steel sheet have also recovered to above 8,000 tonnes per month since April 2010, approaching to 10,000 tonnes of the decent level. The shipment is increasing for vacuum chambers applied to photovoltaic power generation.