Stimulated by high nickel prices, Taiwanese stainless steel distributors increased their quotations these days. Market participants said that if nickel prices continued to be stable, the stainless steel transaction price was expected to rise.

The international nickel prices have been rising since the second half of the year. The LME nickel spot price has risen with a cumulative increase of US$664/ton, an increase of 5.2%.

Encouraged by the rising nickel prices, the stainless steel deal prices have generally increased by around NT$1,000/ton. However, there were no many transactions in the market. The main reasons were that the buyers still wait and see as it was only the beginning of the month and the inventory was high from downstream customers.

Based on the current market conditions, upstream steel mills were still expected to hike the price again in August if the nickel price was above US$13,500/ton.