Posted on 04 Aug 2022
Chinese prices of nickel pig iron (NPI) have continued to head south this week, with the price of 8-10% grade NPI in East China's Jiangsu province under Mysteel's assessment reaching Yuan 1,280/mtu ($190/mtu) including delivery and the 13% VAT as of August 3, losing another Yuan 40/mtu on week and marking the lowest since December 24 2021.
The continuous decrease in prices was partly due to the increased availability in the domestic market of imported NPI from Indonesia, Mysteel Global learned.
Moreover, China's stainless producers are still trying to lower their procurement price of this ferroalloy, given the persistent weakness of stainless prices and demand from end-users. "Many stainless mills will likely continue to lower their output this month, given the losses they are suffering," a market source in Shanghai said.
As of August 3, the price of 304/2B 2mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi in Jiangsu was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 17,300/t in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT, down another Yuan 200/t from one week before.
However, domestic NPI smelters are unwilling to concede more in their offering prices, given their high production costs, as many are still smelting with the high-priced nickel concentrates they had bought earlier. Some smelters will prefer to reduce their production further this month in response to the weakening prices, Mysteel Global noted.
Domestic nickel concentrate prices have kept stable this week due to the weakness of both supply and demand. Transactions in the physical market have been scarce as overseas mines were not active in selling when FOB prices had fallen to their cost lines, the market source added.
As of August 3, the price of Philippines-origin 1.3% Ni content concentrates under Mysteel's assessment was still at $46/t CIF Lianyungang port in Jiangsu, the same level from one week earlier.
Inventories of nickel concs at China's 14 major ports steadily mounted last week to reach 7.86 million tonnes as of July 29, up by another 337,800 tonnes or 4.5% on week, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey. Within the total, the volume from the Philippines had climbed for the seventh week to 7.45 million tonnes, higher by another 3% on week.
Source:Mysteel Global
