NSSC cuts 300 series stainless CR, plate prices for May

For a third straight month, Nippon Steel Stainless Steel Corp (NSSC), Japan's largest stainless producer, is clipping domestic prices of its austenitic stainless cold-rolled (CR) coils and medium and heavy plates, reducing these by Yen 10,000/tonne ($74/t) for May sales, citing the drop in nickel prices. On the other hand, it is raising ferritic stainless prices by Yen 5,000/t for current month sales, it has announced.

The changes to NSSC's pricing policy, relayed to dealers late last week, were required under the company's 'alloy link' surcharge system where prices are adjusted according to trends in global nickel and chrome prices and exchange rates over prior months. For current month sales, NSSC noted that the average price