LME nickel prices decreased sharply last week and the market remained quiet. In addition, China's market performance has also weakened and the export orders have also slowed down compared with last month.

Affected by these, the downstream industry requested upstream mills to lower the price for July. However, the ferrochrome, ferromolybdenum, and other alloy materials all increased sharply, and the LME nickel also rebounded to US$17,700/ton on June 22.

Due to the high raw material costs, it was expected that the upstream mills might increase the price slightly by NT$1,500~2,000/ton for July. Therefore, the market price might be stable, and downstream customers will not have great pressure to sell inventory at high prices.