Nippon steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel (NSSC) announced on Monday the firm lowers its selling price of nickel series cold rolled stainless steel sheet and plate by 10,000 yen per tonne for October shipment and contacts prices against domestic dealers. The revision reflects the decrease of averaged nickel price. The sales price of nickel series cold rolled stainless steel sheet becomes 345,000 yen for the size with below 2 millimeters of thickness, decreasing for 2 months in a row. For chrome series cold rolled stainless sheet, NSSC sets the price unchanged.
Nickel price has declined at London Metal Exchange from the peak level at US$ 12.82 per pound in February. NSSC’s nickel series cold rolled stainless sheet price has decreased by total 55,000 yen from the peak level at 400,000 yen per tonne for May shipment. LME nickel price was averagely US$ 9.25 per pound in September, down from US$ 10.02 in August. Chrome average price was 128 cents per pound in September, as same as in August. Yen exchange rate was averagely 77.88 yen per US dollar in September, which was 78.27 yen in August. NSSC explained dealers’ trading volume is low due to low nickel price and dealers are continuing inventory adjustment while some dealers seek bottom price in balance with raw material price. As for plate, NSSC said shearing processors can’t purchase stainless plate due to dropped nickel price in the last half of September while the demand seems doubling compared with April-July for water gates and power plants. NSSC showed an expectation the demand could also increase for LNG development projects in Middle East and Australia, oil chemical plant projects in Asia and seawater desalination projects in Middle East.