The news of rising stainless steel alloy surcharges may have been greeted as good news by many traders. Apparently, there is more foresight there than seems to be the case with fellow players on the European side of the Atlantic.

All major US stainless steel producers had raised prices for grades 304 and 430. 304 is going up by up to 1.9% for May 2023. 316L is pricing in an expected decline due to falling molybdenum prices. Whether this will improve the availability of 316L remains to be seen. For the martensitic grade 430, the alloy surcharge has even gone up by almost 13% due to the 15% increase in ferrochrome benchmark prices.

The battle between the European stainless steel producers and the stainless steel processing industry and the resulting artificially created buying restraint may lead to an extension and possibly a tightening of the EU Safeguard measure. The wait-and-see attitude of the downstream industry, which had led to downward pressure on prices, could therefore take revenge in the very short term.