Nippon Steel, the largest steelmaker in Japan, announced on November 9 that it decided to raise the price of nickel-based cold-rolled stainless steel sheets used in kitchen equipment and automotive components by 10,000 yen per ton, an increase of around 2%, from the purchase contract in November. Also, the price of chrome-based stainless steel products was also hiked 10,000 yen per ton, an increase of 3%. The price adjustment was to reflect the increase in prices of raw material ferrochrome.

The price of purchase contracts was determined based on the average price of raw materials a month ago and two months ago and the recent supply and demand market environment.

The average price of nickel from September to October kept basically flat as that in the August-September period, but the price of ferrochrome rose by 7%.

The increase in costs of raw materials was due to China’s power curtailment leading to output cuts and uncertainty in South Africa's supply. Moreover, the import costs have risen due to the depreciation of the yen.