China stainless steel prices dip amid pre-Lunar New Year destocking

Chinese stainless steel prices declined over the past week because of producer plans to reduce their inventories ahead of the January 24-30 Lunar New Year holiday.

Sources told Fastmarkets that the slight decrease in nickel prices also contributed to the lower prices, with the three-month nickel contract on the London Metal Exchange ending 2019 at $14,075-14,100 per tonne on Tuesday December 31, down $250-255 per tonne from $14,330-14,350 per tonne on December 24.
Domestic
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for stainless steel cold-rolled coil 2mm grade 304 domestic, ex-whs China, in the country's major market of Wuxi, was 14,100-14,800 yuan ($2,025-2,125) per tonne including value-added tax on Thursday January 2, down 200-300 yuan per tonne from a week earlier.
Sellers cut prices because they planned to de-stock before Chinese New Year to ease their capacity pressure, sources said.

Steelmakers kept high production rates while demand gradually dropped and that also...

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