In 2018, the price of stainless steel -- especially the price of strip mill products -- showed a different trend in traditional steelmaking areas.
In the United States, section 232 quotas and tariffs are applied. In the United States, sales of stainless steel coils were directly affected by inflation in early 2018.In the second half of this year, the base value of 304 grade cold rolled coil decreased, and the alloy surcharge also decreased. However, they are still slightly higher than in early 2018.
The widespread belief was that, when alloy surcharges receded, effective prices would decline less steeply, and that nominal basis values would, therefore climb back towards normal figures. In fact, during the second half of 2018, transaction values have fallen by more than the decrease in alloy extras. Nominal basis numbers are, now, several hundred euros below the widely accepted breakeven figure for cold rolled coil production. European producers will be hoping for a substantial recovery in stainless steel flat products prices, to return their operations towards profitability.
Asian prices have been much less volatile, this year, than those elsewhere in the world. Typically, fluctuations in their selling figures are driven by variations in raw material costs. Recently, producers attempted to maintain stability in their local markets by minimising price alterations. In Japan, especially, only moderate changes in market values, for 300-series cold rolled coils, were recorded, in 2018.
Source: MEPS Stainless Steel Review – December 2018 Issue
