Decision to discontinue two stainless steel base price assessments

The affected prices are:
MB-STS-0002 Stainless steel cold-rolled sheet base price, 316, 2mm, domestic, delivered Europe, € per tonne
MB-STS-0007 Stainless steel cold-rolled sheet, 2mm, grade 304, base price, domestic, delivered Northern Europe, € per tonne

Fastmarkets’ decision follows a month-long consultation to discontinue these steel prices because base prices are no longer used in trade by the wider market. Base price trading has been suspended since the end of 2022 due to poor market conditions. In its place, business has been done on a transaction price basis.

The consultation period for the discontinuation of these prices began on June 13 and ended on July 11. They will be discontinued from August 1.

The initial notice erroneously stated that the discontinuation would be effective from July 16.

All short-term forecasts associated with these prices produced by the Fastmarkets research team, if any, will also be discontinued.

If you have any comments on the discontinuation of these prices, please contact Zdravko Cherkezov by email at: pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading “FAO: Zdravko Cherkezov, re: stainless steel base prices.”

Please indicate if comments are confidential. Fastmarkets will consider all comments received and will make comments not marked as confidential available upon request.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.