Stainless Steel Pipe, Fittings & Flanges: September 2021

Nickel prices have increased over the past 30 days to @$8.94 per lb. ($8.72 in the last update). Warehouse levels were sharply lower again this month at 177,078 tons (202,896 tons in the last update).

Producer prices for stainless pipe were up month-over-month through August, rising by 2.1% M/M (up 3.3% last month); they were also up 27.7% Y/Y (up 23.2% last month).

Nickel prices have slumped in the past few weeks to $8.94 per lb. from a high of $9.26 just a few weeks ago. Warehouse inventories are still lower due to logistics issues and lack of raw material including gasses used in production.

Stainless steel flanges — Wiley, a preeminent Washington, D.C. law firm secured a key victory for domestic flange producers in their efforts to combat dumped and subsidized import stainless steel flanges from India. The U.S. Department of Commerce released the final results in its first administrative review of the antidumping and countervailing duty orders on stainless steel flanges from India, assigning combined antidumping and countervailing duties of more than 140% on more than 40 Indian producers and exporters of flanges. This represents a significant increase in the duty rates applicable to stainless steel flanges from India.