Firm Cr Stainless Sheet Price, Weak Ni Series in Tokyo

Stainless flat rolled sheet steel market price is weak at 620,000 yen per tonne for SUS304 base size due to lower nickel ingot price around Tokyo while SUS430 price is firm at 245,000 yen. The market is still divided into strong chrome series products and weak nickel series. Nickel ingot price stays around US$ 12 per pound in the month. The price shows sign to hit bottom after the roller coaster slide since the peak in May. Japanese stainless makers’ selling price is likely to hit bottom temporally in September when Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel and Nisshin Steel announce the price for distributors. The distributors try to pass the higher cost price when they still keep high priced nickel series inventory and the demand increases toward the peak season. However, the smaller sized distributors try to keep the price more than 600,000 yen per tonne for nickel series products.