Stainless Steel News and Nickel Prices, Molybdenum, Metal Pricing, Ferrochrome
Daily Nickel/Stainless Steel Briefing
- Nickel closed Monday’s trading session at
$12.01/lb
($26,485/tonne). Indicators at 6:00 am CST today show nickel trading around $.12/lb 
higher. Stockpiles of nickel stored in LME licensed warehouses fell on Monday and started today just over the 46,700 tonne level. Shanghai followed LME yesterday’s lower close and ended at 207,190 y/t. LME nickel is trading higher this morning, but that appears to have more to do with a stronger Euro than anything to do with nickel. France is again bailing out the SLN New Caledonia nickel operation with a huge “loan”. If a nickel miner can’t remain solvent without government help while nickel is averaging over $12/lb, it might be time to reevaluate a continuation of the mine. The case of nickel fraud that was announced last week by Trafigura appears to be spreading, with a lot more companies indirectly involved. And here in the US, the National Weather Service has announced its long range forecasts will likely suffer for the next few weeks, as someone keeps shooting down their atmospheric weather balloons. Ok, we made up the last one, but we wonder if the hot air balloon ride profession is starting to suffer yet. Nothing like taking a romantic flight for two, just the pilot, you, your loved one and a F-22 waiting for you to go above 20,000 feet. And with that, we wish you a safe, happy and wonderful Valentine’s Day. - Average price of LME traded cash nickel so far this month – $12.66/lb
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Reports
Shanghai Metals Market
Monday’s market review – Aluminium hits 5-week low as exchange inventories surge – Aluminum prices fell to five-week lows on Monday as surging inventories in London Metal Exchange-approved warehouses hit sentiment, while copper was boosted by Chinese data showing a jump in new bank loans. – more
France grants loan to Eramet’s SLN nickel unit to avert collapse – The French government has agreed to grant a 40 million euro ($42.9 million) loan to SLN, the New Caledonian nickel producer controlled by mining group Eramet facing financial collapse, the economy ministry said on Monday. – more
Getting nicked for half a billion dollars – an analysis on Trafigura’s “systemic” nickel fraud – On the 9th February, Swiss-based commodities trader Trafigura alleged that it had been exposed to “systemic fraud” to the value of $577 million of nickel, in relation to UAE-based businessman Prateek Gupta’s London trading company TMT Metals Holdings Ltd, and companies connected to him. – more
- How Citigroup Helped Lift the Lid on Trafigura’s Nickel Nightmare – more
- Citi halted financing for Trafigura’s nickel deals in October – Bloomberg – more
Outokumpu’s stainless steel deliveries slide in Q4 2022 q-o-q, y-o-y – Outokumpu, a leading stainless steel manufacturer in Europe based in Finland, reported that its stainless steel deliveries reached 450,000 tons in the fourth quarter of last year, down by 8.4% quarter on quarter and by 18.2% year on year. – more
Turkey’s earthquakes paralyze third of steel output capacity – Large steel mills in southern Turkey are expected to remain shut for weeks, with production lines idle and workers trying to cope with the impact of the massive twin earthquakes that shook the region. – more
Courtesy AISI – In the week ending on February 11, 2023, domestic raw steel production was 1,664,000 net tons while the capability utilization rate was 74.4 percent. Production was 1,755,000 net tons in the week ending February 11, 2022 while the capability utilization then was 80.8 percent. – more
Other News
Economic Stats and Prices (posted in Friday edition)
Why Stainless Steel
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Слава Україні! – more