NAS Nickel Announcement
As a result of the interruptions to trading on the London Metal Exchange (LME), and the problems this creates for the stainless steel supply chain given it is the mechanism used for price guidance of alloy surcharges, North American Stainless is going to define the nickel portion of the April 2022 surcharge using only official closing prices from February 21st through March 18. The days of trading that included Disruption Events and days in which the LME were closed will not be used in the calculation of the LME Nickel average for the pricing period. This move is essential to provide the stainless steel supply chain clear direction on April pricing, and to protect the integrity of our industry until the situation normalizes. The value of the period from February 21 to March 18 is $12.60/lb or $27,777.88/metric ton (see Figure A for price build details).