The London Metal Exchange (LME) nickel price stopped increasing and remained at the US$27,000/ton level these days. Due to the high raw material costs, it was expected that Taiwanese stainless steel mills will increase the prices at the end of January for February. Stimulated by it, Taiwanese stainless steel downstream customers hiked the transaction prices by US$30/ton for this week.

Considering of the low demand before the Chinese New Year holidays, downstream customers stopped receiving orders and preferred to sell at good prices after the holidays.

In addition, China's stainless steel prices also went up before the holidays. It was optimistic that the stainless steel prices will be supportive in February.