Nisshin Steel Considers Nickel Cold-rolled Steel Sheet Price Increase for Distributors

Mr. Hiroshi Hotta, vice-president of Nisshin Steel, announced on Thursday that it considered the price hike of nickel cold-rolled steel sheet of the retail price (base price) within this month at earliest. Hotta said that he wanted to judge whether the firm performs the hike or not in 2-3 weeks. According to Hotta, there is improvement of stainless steel supply and demand in the world. He said that the steel sheet market in China increased 3,300 yuan from January. Further, Hotta said that it was still necessary to adjust the domestic stainless steel inventories. He regarded the appropriate stock level as around 1.7 months compared with 1.9 months of the current level. As for increase of the stainless steel sheet import in January, Hotta said that it was necessary to judge whether it is good to perform easing of decrease of stainless steel sheet production. Nisshin announced in February that it would leave unchanged the price of the nickel cold-rolled steel sheet for its shipping in April-June.