Nickel

Platts has reported that the American flat-rolled stainless steel monthly surcharges for April 2015 have fallen to their lowest levels since summer 2009.

North American, AK Steel and ATI Allegheny Ludlum all published their April flat-roll surcharges with Type 304 and 316 stainless steel ranging inbetween 61.

Due to a recent improvement in the demand from mills, stainless steel scrap values mounted a recovery during March 2015.

For example, prices for the 304 grade climbed from $1275-1325 USD per ton in late February to $1340-1390 in March while the range for 316 material rose from $1760-1810 to $1800-1850 over the same period.

The flat-rolled US nickel bearing stainless steel monthly surcharges for April fell to their lowest levels since summer 2009, while ferritic grade type 403 was at its lowest monthly price since early 2010, according to the domestic producers published prices.

The monthly Stainless MMI®, which was just released for March, has continued from its long descent at the top to a registered value of 78 in March. This is a decrease of 3.7 percent from 81 in February.

Brazilian miner, Vale SA, will pay the province of Newfoundland and Labrador $230 million CAD for letting the company export more Voisey’s Bay nickel concentrate while a processing plant ramps up in the province.

So far in early 2015, stainless steel purchase tonnages have failed to pick up in the major consuming markets. Despite a burst of activity in the first half of January, this appears to have been the result of short-lived stock replenishment measures, which have now subsided.

The global stainless steel market is being negatively impacted from a lack of momentum. Constantly rising primary nickel stocks on the London Metal exchange (LME) have undermined sentiment and maintain the pressure on values in the stainless steel scrap sector.

The American Society for Testing and Materials’ (ASTM) standards are used throughout the world. The standards started out being developed for the building and construction sector, but are now defining sustainability standards for every industry and application.

Brazilian miner Vale SA has announced that it produced 319.2 million tonnes of iron ore in 2014, beating its forecast for the year.

The world's largest producer of iron ore, produced 83 million tonnes of the steelmaking ingredient in the fourth quarter, an increase of two percent from the same period a year earlier.

The global stainless steel producer, Outokumpu, has reported that the global demand for the metal has shown signs of improvement so far this year when compared with the lows recorded during the end of last year.