US stainless sheet base prices held firm heading into June, but transaction prices for cold-rolled series-300 grades slipped on lower mill-published surcharges, market participants said Thursday.
Base price discounts offered by US mills have been steady since April, following an announced price increase that took effect with new shipments April 1, sources said. US mills previously announced they would be raising prices for all 200 and 300 series grades and Type 430 cold-rolled stainless coil and sheet through a reduction in functional discounts of two percentage points.
However, published raw material surcharges for most commodity-grade stainless sheet moved down for June. In late May, ATI Allegheny Ludlum, AK Steel, North American Stainless and Outokumpu Coils America published cold-rolled sheet surcharges for June with Types 304 and 316 stainless at 54-54.03 cents/lb and 69.21-69.37 cents/lb, respectively. Type 304 stainless is down from 56.84-56.87 cents/lb in May, while Type 316 is down from 73.87-73.91 cents/lb.
As a result, transaction prices for series-300 grades continued to follow surcharges lower for a second month, a service center source said.
Type 430 stainless sheet transaction prices, however, were stable month on month, sources said, as base price discounts and raw material surcharges were unchanged.
S&P Global Platts on Thursday assessed Type 304 stainless sheet transaction prices at 114-117 cents/lb, down from 117-120 cents/lb in the previous month. Type 316 stainless transaction prices were assessed at 149-153 cents/lb, down from 154-158 cents/lb.
Type 430 stainless sheet transaction prices were assessed at 92-95 cents/lb, unchanged month on month.
