[ferro-alloys.com]Japan's Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Thursday cut its domestic price of austenitic wire rod by Yen 10,000/mt ($89/mt) for September-November contracts to reflect lower raw material costs.

It left its ferritic wire rod price unchanged.

The average price of nickel over June 26-September 19 fell to $5.97/lb from $6.57/lb in the previous three-month period, while ferrochrome prices fell to 146 cents/lb from 150 cents/lb, the producer said in a statement.

This cut the cost of austenitic wire rod by Yen 10,000/mt but kept the cost of ferritic wire rod steady due to its alloy surcharge component, it added.

For June-August contracts, NSSC raised prices by Yen 40,000/mt for austenitic wire rod and by Yen 25,000/mt for ferritic wire rod from the previous three-month period to reflect higher input costs.

NSSC said demand for stainless rod remains strong from secondary processors amid active downstream demand from the auto, construction and related sctors.

The company said its Hikari wire rod plant in western Japan was expected to continue to operate at full capacity over October-December. Input costs such as for electrode, auxiliary material and delivery fees in the second half of the current fiscal year (October 2018-March 2019) were expected to rise, which it would consider reflecting in its prices if they could not countered by cost reductions elsewhere in the process, NSSC said.

• [Editor:王可]