Fastmarkets’ monthly price assessment for stainless steel, cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, transaction domestic, delivered North Europe was €2,550-2,600 ($2,694-2,747) per tonne on Friday, down from €2,600-2,650 on November 1.
“I’ve never seen the market so slow,” one trader told Fastmarkets. “Usually, December is slow because people don’t want to buy material right before the end of the year, but I certainly didn’t expect liquidity to be so low.”
A second market source said, “I wanted to sell [material], but I couldn’t find a buyer. I hope demand will pick up in January.”
A third source said that the chances of demand rising in January 2025 are “considerable, but nothing is guaranteed.”
“Traditionally, January is a very active month compared with December, but given the current state of the market, we might be surprised,” the third source said.
The alloy surcharge for grade-304 material also fell month on month.
Fastmarkets’ monthly assessment for stainless steel, cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304 alloy surcharge, domestic, Europe was €2,015-2,064 per tonne on December 6, down by €50-62 per tonne from €2,077-2,114 per tonne on November 1.
On October 4, the monthly assessment was €1,963-2,023 per tonne, down by €28-36 from €1,999-2,051 per tonne on September 6.
