Despite further price increases for stainless steel scrap in the United States, market participants were pessimistic, pointing to low order volumes from the consuming mills and still-short lead times for finished steel products.
"Since this market is a moving target, it's difficult to price the broker/processor prices on a daily basis," one broker said."I see no reason for London Metal Exchange nickel to be where it is, unless someone out there [in the marketplace] knows that Indonesia is ready to pull the trigger on the nickel export ban," one dealer said."Demand isn't great, and steel is going down again," the dealer added.Prices for the 300-series grades moved up despite the outlook uncertainty, while the 400-series grades moved broadly sideways on expected weakness in the iron and chrome markets.Fastmarkets' assessment of the 300-series grades in...