Page 59 from: March 2016
Nickel & Stainless
59March 2016
Europe
Having recently recorded its lowest
quotation on the LME in 13 years,
nickel is continuing to suffer the effects
of weak demand not only from the
European stainless steel market but
also globally. The one ray of hope is
the announcement by a major Chinese
nickel producer that it would like to
cut its production by 120 000 tonnes,
a move which would reduce global
output by around 6%.
In Germany, nickel cathodes have
been trading recently at around
US$ 7750 per tonne, with V2A scrap
yielding some US$ 913 and V4A scrap
US$ 1475.
China and elsewhere in
Asia
The stainless steel market in many parts
of Asia has been relatively quiet of late,
particularly in the run-up to the Chi-
nese New Year holidays. Prices remain
at multi-year lows and many mills have
undertaken either production cuts or
maintenance programmes in February.
Figures from China’s Special Steel
Enterprises Association reveal domes-
tic production of crude stainless steel
dipped 0.6% to 21.56 million tonnes
last year whereas apparent consump-
tion nudged 1.4% higher to 16.28 mil-
lion tonnes. The 300 series accounted
for more than half the production total
on 11.27 million tonnes (+3.7% year
on year) while 400 series output fell
almost 11% to 3.97 million tonnes.
Chinese production of 200 series stain-
less steel was 0.7% lower last year at
6.33 million tonnes.
North America
Over recent weeks, stainless steel mills
have nudged up their scrap buying
prices in certain instances. However,
the flow of material from collectors has
been compromised by the combination
of low scrap values and poor weather
conditions.
According to Outokumpu, global stain-
less steel real demand grew only 1.6%
last year owing to slowing economies in
emerging markets (notably China), gen-
eral weakness in global manufacturing
and deterioration in the nickel price. The
company also reports ‘no meaningful
pick-up’ in the stainless steel markets
for the first quarter of 2016.
Meanwhile, Outokumpu has been
joined by other American stainless
steel producers AK Steel Corporation,
Allegheny Ludlum LLC (ATI Flat Rolled
Products) and North American Stain-
less in filing anti-dumping and coun-
tervailing duty petitions against ‘unfairly
traded’ imports of stainless steel sheet
and strip from China, alleging that the
Chinese government has given signifi-
cant subsidies to its domestic stainless
steel industry.
Statistics released by the Census Bureau
and the International Trade Commission
indicate that, year on year, US stainless
scrap exports were almost 6% lower in
January-November 2015 at 481 475
tonnes – despite substantial increases
in shipments to India and China of,
respectively, 59% and 24%.
Minor metals
The molybdenum price has remained under pressure because of the con-
tinuing low levels of interest from the stainless steel industry. The slack
period in the high speed steels industry has resulted in poor prices for all
metals used in their production. Molybdenum is being quoted at US$ 11
700-12 200 per tonne while cobalt has fallen from US$ 23 500-24 000 to
US$ 22 000-22 500 on the LME. Ferro-vanadium has held its level of US$
14.65-15 per kg V whereas ferro-tungsten has dropped from US$ 23.50-
24 per kg W to US$ 22-23.80. Ferro-titanium has not yet found its lows
and has bounced back to US$ 3.40-3.60 per kg Ti (maximum 4.5% Al).
