Stainless Steel Me

Following Outokumpu’s lead in late February where they announced base price increased for stainless deliveries for March from stock and April on new production other mills have now followed . Other European stainless steel mills, such as ThyssenKrupp and Arcelor Mittal have raised base price for April 2009 to compensate the dropping alloy surcharge. The new prices for austenitic grade 304 will increase by USD 50 to USD 100 per tonne to USD 900 to USD 950 per tonne.

On the other hand, the alloy surcharge price will be lower  compared with March prices and may still ease slightly in May. Some European customers are still reluctant to buy since  production cut backs have lengthened lead times and are uncertain of future nickel prices. However the longer term outlook for Nickel is slightly higher according to GFMS who are forecasting an average nickel price of $10,450/tonne for the year.

All signals are that the prices are close to the bottom of the price cycle and whilr there are no short term indicators for rapid rises it would seem a good time to be resuming purchases of stainless steel.