January 9, 2023
15 December 2022 – The recovery on the steel and stainless steel markets continues with rising prices for raw materials and intermediates. Steel scrap remains in short supply in Europe, ferrochrome benchmarks are stable, and stainless steel prices on the Chinese spot market increased by more than 4% in some cases in December.
Steel prices rise
Rising hot rolled coil (HRC) prices are reported from various sources in the major steel markets, China and the United States. In China, one of the major steel producers has announced plans to raise prices for HRC in January. And in the United States, not only HRC but also cold rolled coil (CRC) prices are going up for the second week in a row.
Iron ore futures up almost 50%
Iron ore prices on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) continue to rise on positive signals from China. Today, in part, by more than 3.23%. This means that DCE iron ore futures have risen by almost 50% since their low in early November.
Ferrochrome benchmark prices for Q1 2023
European ferrochrome benchmark prices remain stable for Q1 2023, further underpinning the recovery in ferrochrome demand. Chinese ferrochrome prices had already made decent gains since September, rising by around 7.5% since the beginning of December alone.
Overall, a good outlook for stainless steel is also that Chinese spot market prices have risen by more than 4.2% in some cases since the beginning of December, depending on the grade.
