Raw materials, costs and profits: nickel accounts for a high proportion of raw material costs; nickel ore has an external dependence of over 60%; nickel price affects costs and profits

Nickel accounts for the highest cost of stainless steel material up to 70%, and the fluctuation of nickel price will have a great impact on the cost and profitability of stainless steel.

In our country, stainless steel contains more nickel, and the output of 300 lines accounts for more than 50%, which occupies an important position in the stainless steel system. Nickel containing 300 series stainless steel, nickel costs the highest, accounting for up to 70%, so the fluctuation of nickel prices will have a major impact on the cost of stainless steel production.

In the 300 series, the cost structure of stainless steel with different raw materials ratio was analyzed by taking 304 stainless steel cold rolling as an example. At present, the mode of proportioning raw materials for 304 stainless steel is standard mode, complete nickel iron mode, low nickel iron + nickel plate model and completely pure nickel mode. Among them, the cost of nickel accounted for between 49%-61%, 304, stainless steel production costs accounted for the largest proportion of the raw material structure.