Stainless Steel Me

Following recent rapid increases in stainless steel due to rising commodity costs two key European manufacturers have announced base price increases. Spanish based stainless steel giant Acerinox announced the following UK information. Acerinox UK is announcing the following base price increases effective for all deliveries from 1st June 2010 and all stock orders with immediate effect.

• Austenitic cold rolled products 40 GBP
• Ferritic cold rolled products 25 GBP
• Continuously produced plate 35 GBP
• Quarto Plate 40 GBP

This follows a similar announcement from German based Thyssen krupp who report ” Thyssen Krupp Nirosta are experiencing a significant improvement in our order intake with the result that lead times are extending due to an improved level of capacity utilization on all three of our production units in Germany.” The note goes on to say increases similar to those above from Acerinox will be effective from the 1st of June.

This is the first sign that the mills are confident of real demand increasing and that prices will remain strong for some time to come. Although Nickel prices have eased slightly the outlook remains for higher price levels, longer lead times and more limited availability for the stainless steel market.