European stainless steel bases prices remain unchanged on Friday July 6 despite lower-priced imports available from Asia, with mills seemingly confident of maintaining acceptable sales volumes during summer without offering discounts.
Metal Bulletin's weekly base price assessment for 2mm, grade-304 cold-rolled (CR) stainless steel sheet in Northern Europe was stable at ?,?1,000-1,050 ($1,168-1,227) per tonne delivered on Friday, while the weekly assessment for grade-316 CR stainless steel in Europe was at ?,?1,300-1,350 per tonne on July 6, stable for four weeks since June 8.Last week, the alloy surcharges for July increased substantially, which, when coupled with steady base prices, means equally higher transaction prices for stainless steel products.In recent months, mills have lowered base prices for cold-rolled sheet products to compensate for increased surcharges...