Yieh United Steel Corp. (Yusco) announced to increase in its prices for October on September 29. Market participants indicated that there might be two reasons that made the price up.

First, many steel mills in the world cut their production. Because China’s stainless steel price has been at a low level in previous months, some steel mills in China decided to cut their production, which made steel prices go up in September.

At the same time, the shortage of energy and hiking energy prices forced many steel mills in Europe to reduce production. Also, South Korea’s POSCO faced flooding damage and it has to wait until December to resume production.

Second, the international prices of raw materials went up. The average monthly nickel price in September increased by 3.6% month on month. Also, the price of chromium went up as well.