Taiwan’s stainless steel prices impacted by surging prices of carbon steel scrap
It was expected that Taiwan’s main upstream mills will hike their stainless steel prices for January 2021 due to the high costs of nickel and scrap.
The LME nickel price has hit the record high many times in December. The highest nickel price has ever stood at the US$17,600/ton level, which exceeded the highest price in October 2019.
The steel mills’ nickel costs have increased by roughly NT$2,300/ton, comparing the monthly average nickel prices in December with November. Therefore, in order to reflect the increase in costs, stainless steel mills were predicted to raise prices by NT$2,000/ton at least.
However, in addition to nickel prices, the prices of carbon steel scrap also play a key role in steel mill’s manufacturing. The current international hot-rolled scrap price surged by US$100, and the domestic scrap price also climbed by NT$2,000/ton in December, which showed a great increase in costs of carbon steel scrap.
According to market participants, the current market price of stainless steel has risen by about NT$2,000-2,500/ton compared to early December.
