19 February 2026 – Base metals on the LME showed a friendly disposition last Wednesday, partly posting slight gains. Sudden irregularity: EU stainless steel producer raises prices – are producers exploiting the situation?
LME Base Metals Show Friendly Tone
Base metals on the LME showed a friendly disposition last Wednesday, partly posting slight gains. Nickel improved by approximately 1%, while copper and aluminium moved sideways in positive territory.
On Thursday morning, base metals continued to show stability at the opening of trading. After nickel, for example, had officially closed at approximately USD 17,060 per tonne in yesterday’s official trading session, it briefly touched nearly USD 17,500 this morning. Aluminium and copper continue to trend sideways.
Sudden Irregularity: EU Stainless Steel Producer Raises Prices
One of the three major EU stainless steel producers, which had most recently been implementing its price increases on specific days of the week and in small increments, has broken with its established pattern. Surprisingly, this producer has now raised its prices not only on a different day but also significantly more than usual.
Have Producers Created the Narrative of “Their Crisis” Themselves?
This once again demonstrates that prices have been artificially kept low in recent months through order book shaping, until time is now running short ahead of the steel tariffs and import quotas expected to take effect from July 2026. This has allowed not only this producer but also its peers to build additional political pressure. The price adjustments that have now been made are a clear indication that the producers have created the narrative of “their crisis” themselves.
It is also worth noting that another major European steel producer (not stainless steel) announced further price increases at virtually the same moment. It is hard to consider this a mere coincidence.
However, this behaviour is not only observable in the EU. When US Section 232 tariffs were raised from 25% to 50% in early 2025, US steel and stainless steel producers had already raised prices in exactly the same manner – in some cases, prices jumped by more than 25% overnight.
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