In the smelting of stainless steel, the sources of nickel metal currently fall into three main categories: nickel pig iron, pure nickel, and scrap stainless steel. Steel mills adopt different mix ratios based on price fluctuations of various raw materials at different stages, aiming to maximize profits. This article will focus on comparing the production costs associated with different raw material mix ratios for stainless steel during the current period.

　　I. Comparison of Costs Between High-Nickel Iron and Nickel Plates

　　Compared to pure nickel, high-nickel pig iron has the primary advantage of providing steelmaking pig iron. Currently, the price of steelmaking pig iron stands at 2,530 yuan per ton. Taking high-nickel pig iron with a nickel content of 12% as an example, its current price in the Jiangsu region is 1,380 yuan per nickel. For high-nickel iron, each percentage point of nickel corresponds to a value of 181 yuan in terms of the steelmaking pig iron it yields. In other words, as long as the quoted price of high-nickel pig iron remains within 181 yuan per nickel above the price of nickel plates, high-nickel pig iron will still enjoy a cost advantage. Under the current market conditions, the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton, resulting in a price differential of 116 yuan per nickel—less than the 181-yuan threshold. Therefore, for raw materials used in stainless steel smelting, high-nickel iron offers a greater cost advantage over nickel plates.

　　II. Comparison of Costs Between Scrap Stainless Steel and High-Nickel Pig Iron

　　Compared to high-nickel pig iron, waste stainless steel not only contains nickel but also chromium. The main components of waste stainless steel are as follows: a nickel mass fraction of 8%, a chromium mass fraction of 17%, an iron mass fraction of 73%, and other elements accounting for 2%. Regarding the nickel content in scrap steel, taking the June tender price for Tai Steel’s scrap steel at 13,900 yuan per ton as an example, the value of nickel iron—representing 8% nickel in the scrap steel—works out to 11,120 yuan. Thus, the price of a single nickel point in the nickel iron from scrap steel comes to 1,390 yuan per nickel, which is roughly equivalent to the current price of 1,380 yuan per nickel for high-nickel pig iron with 12% nickel content in the Jiangsu region.

　　China faces a shortage of stainless steel scrap resources. Coupled with the high energy consumption associated with smelting entirely from scrap and the presence of numerous harmful elements in low-quality scrap that get introduced into the molten steel, the advantages of scrap prices are insufficient to attract widespread adoption of an all-scrap stainless steel production model. According to data compiled by the 51bxg Industry Research Center, in stainless steel smelting, the proportion of recycled stainless steel as raw material has already approached its upper limit at 60%. Meanwhile, the average utilization rate of recycled stainless steel across society stands at around 18%.

　　3. Low-nickel pig iron + pure nickel mode

　　For the low-nickel pig iron plus pure nickel model, if we assume that a mixture of low-nickel pig iron (1.6%) and pure nickel is formulated to match the composition of high-nickel pig iron (12%), then we would need 0.8943 tons of low-nickel iron and 0.1057 tons of pure nickel. Currently, the price of low-nickel iron on the Shandong market is 3,400 yuan per ton, while the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton. Therefore, if we compare based on this approach, the price of 12% nickel pig iron would be 16,401.1 yuan, equivalent to 1,366.8 yuan per nickel. In contrast, the current price of 12% high-nickel iron is 1,380 yuan per nickel, so the comparative advantage is not obvious.

　　IV. Medium-Nickel Iron + Pure Nickel Model

　　Regarding the production model that combines medium-nickel pig iron with pure nickel—assuming a “medium-nickel pig iron (5%) + pure nickel” mix—when formulated to achieve the same composition as high-nickel pig iron (12%), the required amounts would be 0.926 tons of medium-nickel pig iron and 0.074 tons of pure nickel. Currently, the tax-inclusive price of medium-nickel pig iron is 1,340 yuan per nickel, while the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton. Therefore, based on this mixing ratio, the price of high-nickel pig iron reaching 12% nickel content would be 15,557.8 yuan, equivalent to 1,296.5 yuan per nickel. In comparison, the medium-nickel pig iron plus pure nickel production model offers a significant advantage over the high-nickel pig iron production model, with a lower cost per nickel point by 84 yuan.

　　The exploration of the above-mentioned stainless steel production raw material proportioning models not only provides valuable guidance for steel mills in controlling production costs, but also enables them to forecast future trends in price fluctuations by analyzing the differences in price spreads and the speed of price changes among various raw materials across different periods.