The international nickel price has reached a six-year high recently, coupled with the continuous increases in prices of key raw materials for stainless steel making, such as nickel pig iron, ferrochrome, and scrap, Yieh United Steel Corp. (Yusco) and Tang Eng Iron Works Co., Ltd., two leading stainless steel upstream suppliers in Taiwan, were expected to hike their domestic and export sales prices for February.

According to market participants, the two main upstream stainless steel mills were predicted to raise the prices of 300 series products by an increase of more than NT$5,000/ton, as the stainless steel market prices have been boosted by rising raw materials prices and steel mills’ production costs.