[Ferro-Alloys.com] Stainless steel mills need lower ferro-nickel prices and stable scrap discounts, according to Dr Frank Ehrenberg, senior vp of raw materials purchasing at Outokumpu.

 

The levels for both ferro-nickel and scrap discounts must be better aligned with the price of nickel pig iron (NPI), he added. Ferro-nickel trades at a discount to London Metal Exchange nickel metal but is more expensive than lower-grade nickel pig iron (NPI), which is produced in China and favoured by that country’s steel mills, but unavailable to western mills. Ferro-nickel is priced too at too high a premium to the lower-grade product and at too small a discount to premium-grade nickel, while its high nickel content means mills have to pay for more nickel than they actually need, according to Ehrenberg.