Meps has forecast that in the short term stainless steel prices will move even higher due mainly to an unprecedented hike in the price of nickel on the LME during October. It said that this gain will impact on alloy surcharges in December and January and basis values are also likely to rise until the end of the year pushing selling prices to their highest ever recorded figures. Meps believes that the year end will be the peak of the current cycle and in the longer term expect stainless selling values to decline. The LME 15 month buy price for nickel in the last few days of October was hovering around USD 24,000pt. This compares with a daily cash price of over USD 34,000 on several occasions during October and a figure of around USD 32,000 in recent days. In fact, the October average nickel price will be almost USD 2000 higher than the August record high.
