Stainless steel pipe, fittings & flanges report: February 2018
Austenitic stainless steel PVF prices are driven to a substantial extent by the value of nickel. Recently, spot nickel prices have been volatile, generally riding a higher wave on the back of the weakening dollar while being periodically rocked by sharp corrections in equities markets. But regardless of the price swings, there’s been a significant bias to the upside for nickel prices. Besides a small decline in December, average monthly prices have increased every month since July. February’s average prices are 50.0 percent higher than last June’s and have not been this high since May, 2015.
While LME inventory levels are still historically high, they’ve recently fallen around 10.0 percent, and a third consecutive production deficit is expected for 2018. Investors’ excitement over global electric car sales has also boosted nickel’s fundamentals. It will be interesting to see whether the present price levels can be maintained, especially throughout and directly following the Chinese New Year holidays. Rising prices would indicate a bullish demand outlook, and the potential for prices to increase to even higher levels throughout 2018.