Network Metals LLC

Substitution alert? With the rise of nickel in the past few weeks on the LME, we are not surprised to see consequent price jumps in other stainless steel ingredients like manganese. In Shanghai, we hear directly from our contacts that manganese rose 2% over the past week; this is nowhere near nickel’s rise, which over the past month is more than 15%, but analytically it makes sense that nickel, one of stainless steel’s major components, would drive the price of manganese up. Of course, our fundamental understanding is that real demand for stainless steel has not yet picked up much, and we do not expect to see significant sustained price increases for its ingredients until it does.