The current nickel price is standing at the above US$33,000/ton level, international steel mills hiked prices successively, and production costs are still high, which indicated that Taiwan’s upstream stainless steel mills are likely to raise or keep their prices for May, with 50%-50% probability.

Despite the weak demand in Taiwan and the unstable price trend in China due to the epidemic, the low inventory of nickel and tight supply are supporting nickel prices.

In addition, the price hike in the previous month was said not to fully reflect raw material costs. Therefore, it is possible for steel mills to raise prices for May under the current high costs.