NSSC Raises Ni, Cr Series Stainless Flat Steel Price

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel (NSSC) announced on Thursday the firm increases the selling price of nickel series stainless steel plate and cold rolled flat steel by 20,000 yen per tonne for domestic distributors for August order. The firm also increases the chrome series stainless cold rolled flat steel by 4,000 yen. The firm tries to pass higher cost of raw materials including nickel and chrome.

The new price is 335,000 yen per tonne for nickel series cold rolled flat steel with 2 millimeters thick and 245,000 yen for chrome series cold rolled flat steel. The firm increases the nickel series stainless price for 4 months in a row totaling 50,000 yen hike.

The firm will increase the chrome series products price for September order to reflect higher chrome price when the quarterly ferrochrome price increased by 20 US cents to 97 US cents per pound of chrome for July-September from April-June.

Domestic cold rolled flat steel supply is getting tight especially for nickel series products when the dealers’ inventory decreased. NSSC increased the operation rate to 70% of the capacity at Hikari plant. However, the firm tries to keep the low level production due to very slow building demand.

Worldwide nickel series cold rolled flat steel price increases mainly due to higher nickel price along with higher production by the makers. NSSC’s export price increased to US$ 2,700-2,800 per tonne for cold rolled coil.