East Asia's stainless steel market strengthened slightly over the past week, with elevated nickel prices keeping mills under pressure to raise their offers.
Metal Bulletin's assessment of prices for benchmark 304 stainless 2mm trimmed cold-rolled coil was $2,230-2,310 per tonne cif East Asian ports for the week ended Wednesday May 9, up $10-60 per tonne from a week earlier. Metal Bulletin's assessment of prices for benchmark 304 stainless trimmed hot-rolled sheet was $2,170-2,240 per tonne cif East Asian ports for the same period, up $20 per tonne week on week.Deals involving Chinese stainless cold-rolled sheet were heard concluded at $2,250 per tonne fob. This is equivalent to about $2,230-2,270 per tonne cif for stainless CRC, assuming a charge of about $30-60 per tonne to cut coil into sheet.Bookings for stainless hot-rolled coil from China were...