SunSirs: Stainless Steel Prices Slightly Decreased (April 14-18)

Price trend

According to the price monitoring of SunSirs, the price of stainless steel has slightly decreased this week. As of April 18th, the daily average price of spot 304/2B stainless steel flat plate 1.0 * 1219 * 2438 (tolerance 0.91) was 12,314.29 RMB/ton, a decrease of 0.4% from the beginning of the week and a year-on-year decrease of 4.7%.

According to the price difference analysis tool of SunSirs, the prices of nickel and stainless steel are basically similar, but recently nickel prices have fallen first and then risen, while stainless steel prices were relatively weak.

Analysis review

This week's stainless steel inventory totaled 108.67 tons, an increase of 0.21% compared to last week. Among them, cold-rolled inventory decreased and increased, while hot-rolled inventory increased.

On a macro level, Powell's speech by the Federal Reserve tended to be hawkish, which might suppress the short-term macro atmosphere; Previously, the overly pessimistic expectations of tariffs were marginally revised, but the uncertainty of tariff policies will continue to repeatedly affect market sentiment.

From the perspective of supply and demand, the steelmaking plant of a stainless steel plant in East China that has been shut down for maintenance was about to end, and it was expected to resume production last week, mainly affecting the production of stainless steel 201. The Indonesian PNBP policy will be officially implemented on April 26th, and the target of implementation will still be mining license operators, so the cost increase will mainly be transferred downstream from nickel mines. Some traders offered discounts on shipments, but downstream companies were cautious and observing, resulting in slow digestion of social inventory; The supply of stainless steel remained high in April, while demand was in the off-season. Coupled with the impact of export regulation and tariff policies, the fundamentals of stainless steel may be weak.

Market outlook

The fundamentals of stainless steel remained weak, and the upcoming Indonesian PNBP policy may stabilize the cost support for stainless steel. It is expected that stainless steel prices will mainly fluctuate within a range in the short term.

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