Decline in prices favours use of nickel in stainless steel

Mumbai : Aarti Chandran, a middle class housewife in the western Mumbai suburb, replaced all her utensil and cutlery products at a fresh investment of around Rs 10,000. Reason: the utensils and cutlery items that she had bought barely six months ago started rusting, despite being claimed to be of stainless steel. Many housewives like Aarti are habituated to change their kitchen materials almost every six months. Record high nickel price two years ago forced unorganised sector players to use less, making kitchen materials less durable. Before the nickel price hit a record high of $54,000 a tonne on the benchmark London Metal Exchange in 2007, the metal’s use in stainless steel industry was ranging between 6 per cent and 8 per cent of the total raw material content.

However, producers gradually reduced its use to ‘nil’ in order to protect margin. Consequently, utensils such as glass, plate and bowl produced largely by unorganised sector players start breaking in six months. Nickel price slumped to $13,000 a tonne early last year, recovering again to trade at $21,923 a tonne. The metal price fell 24 per cent from the peak of $29,000 late February. But, nickel’s use remained between 6 per cent and 8 per cent by branded utensil manufacturers and exporters like Varun Industries, said Kiran Mehta,CMD of the company.