Taigang Stainless Steel, the largest stainless steel producer in China announced to leave its list prices for all stainless steel products unchanged for July contracts.

According to the statistics, in June and July, the operating rate in high FeNi main producing areas was pretty low for the poor market condition and the environmental policy

According to the relative statistics, in the major producing area Wulanchabu, Inner Mongolia, China, the high FeNi operating rate was reduced to 30%.

Because of the weak demand, the low FeNi price continued to decline since middle of June in Chinese market. On July 9th, 2014, the low FeNi price was quoted at RMB3000-3100/mt, RMB550/mt lower than ever.

Along with the rising LME nickel price, the producers pulled up the high FeNi price by RMB10/Ni to RMB1,290-1,310/Ni (ex-works price with tax).

ne of the major reasons was the downturn production of steel mills. It was learned that Posco, Jisco and some other steel mills had already planned to overhaul.

Entering July, the demand from stainless steel weakened. It was acknowledged that the overhaul of steel mills increased. Under this condition, many steel mills cut down the purchasing volume of the raw materials.

At the end of June, the new round of purchasing was coming. Now many steel mills have already shown that the purchasing volume of high FeNi would decrease because of the weak demand and the poor market condition