After the holiday in early May, Japanese producers of austenitic stainless steel sheet began to collect the price information from the Asian customers immediately. Posco kept the austenitic stainless steel price flat for May and lifted the domestic ferritic price by US$90/ton. Taiwan cut the austenitic stainless steel price by US$80/ton for May while kept the ferritic price unchanged.
Tisco in China cut the austenitic stainless steel price flat by USD175/ton for May and the new price reached about US$2,794(VAT included). It is estimated that this week would be the key stage for Japanese mills to negotiate the June price with the customers. With the rebound of nickel price in LME currently, the new price would probably have a little chance to drop to below US$2,500/ton CFR.
