Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe, was €2,600-2,650 ($2,824-2,879) per tonne on Friday, narrowing downward from €2,600-2,780 on October 4.
Three major European stainless steel mills confirmed to Fastmarkets that they had revised their production volumes for the fourth quarter, with another market source saying that others had made similar decisions.
“Demand is virtually gone, but the reduced output has helped to keep prices stable,” a trader source told Fastmarkets.
“The mills are trying to keep prices alive, but in the long term it doesn’t seem viable, price-wise,” a second source told Fastmarkets. “I expect [there to be] a drop in prices as early as the first week of November, and it could continue through to the end of the year.”
Another factor that played a role in mills’ decisions to reduce output was the expectation of increased imports of Taiwanese and Indonesian material, which were possible due to the EU import quota being reset for the fourth quarter.
“Even with [anti-dumping and anti-circumvention] duties, Taiwanese prices are much lower. If the price difference is too big, it still makes sense for them to sell in Europe,” a third trader told Fastmarkets.
“I think the import quota reset has played a part when talking about the reduced output, for sure,” a fourth source told Fastmarkets.
The alloy surcharge for grade-304 material rose on Friday.
Fastmarkets’ monthly assessment of the stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304 alloy surcharge, domestic, Europe, was €2,077-2,114 per tonne on November 1, up by €91-114 per tonne from €1,963-2,023 per tonne a month earlier.
The assessment on September 6 was €1,999-2,051 per tonne, down by €109-111 per tonne from €2,110-2,160 on August 2.
Another factor that affected the price of stainless steel flat products in October was the slower fall in the price for stainless scrap. Fastmarkets’ weekly assessment of the price for stainless steel scrap 18/8 solids, import, cif main European port, averaged €1,162.50 per tonne in October.
This continued the downward trend that started in May-when the average was €1,430 per tonne.
Zdravko Cherkezov Sofia contributed to this story.
