NSSC Reduces Ni Series Cold Rolled Stainless by 60,000 yen/t

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel Corporation (NSSC) announced on Monday the firm reduces the selling price by 60,000 yen per tonne for nickel series cold rolled stainless flat steel and by 43,000 yen for chrome series cold rolled flat steel for domestic distributors for March order. The firm reduces stainless plate selling price by 60,000 yen.

The nickel series cold rolled flat steel price decreases to 290,000 yen per tonne for cut edge coil product with 2 millimeters thick, which is the lowest level since December 2005. The chrome series cold rolled flat price decreases to 258,000 yen.

The firm reflects the nickel ingot price at London Metal Exchange with minimum price at more than US$ 3 per pound while the firm stopped the alloy link system in December setting temporally minimum price at US$ 5.18. The firm explains the firm resumes the normal alloy link mechanism when the export order shows sign to recover and the abnormal market confusion gets normalization while the firm’s steel making shop is still in 40% operation of the capacity. The firm tries to normalize the price level by reducing the selling price when the price was much higher than the market price due to price freeze in January and February.

The firm also reflects the lower chrome price to chrome series products when the ferrochrome quarterly price decreased by 54.9% to 87 US cents per pound for January-March from October-December.

The firm sees offshore plate demand shows sign to recover after Chinese New Year while the domestic plate demand is still in slump. The firm said the offshore order is 70-80% of a year earlier level while domestic order is only 50-60% of a year earlier level.