Indian ferro silicon prices increased further from INR 127,000/tonne (t) to INR 129,000/t ex-plant. However, producers are also quoting higher for bulk orders. The prices in India rallied after the Bhutan dispatches were severely impacted by the backlog in orders.
Bhutan’s producers are facing serious labour issues, which is delaying dispatches. Most of the labour in the Bhutanese plants are Indian and with the subsequent lockdowns and the pandemic, labour shortage has worsened. Breaking and sizing of the material is an issue and many producers are now selling cakes.
As per market sources, producers are selling mostly cakes (up to 350mm), to the Indian market, which is then being re-sized (25-150mm) and resold. But, dispatches from Bhutan still remain tight, with most of them taking orders for June delivery.
Most of the producers in Bhutan are not offering below INR 118,000/t, while a few bulk deals were also concluded at around INR 120,000/t early this week.
One deal was concluded from Bhutan at INR 118,000/t exw for lumps whose dispatch is scheduled in the first week of June, while the buyer remains skeptical. Bhutanese ferro silicon suppliers are still dispatching their previous month’s bookings.
One more case of Covid has been found in an unit in Pasakha from the mass screening on 19 May. Around 1,400 samples were collected for testing. Bhutanese plants remain cautious and stringent about the increasing cases of Covid. This is certainly posing a challenge to running the plant and streamlining ferro silicon dispatches.
Producers in Guwahati are booked but most players are offering nil quantity in the market. Most of them are worried about truck unavailability and raw material supply. Therefore, many are not accepting new orders in a bid to keep the inventory for their pre-existing orders.
Meanwhile, in the international market, prices picked up after Chinese prices increased. The prices in China increased after export taxes were implemented last week. However, this pushed up the prices to around $1,650-1,700/t in the Asian market.
Although demand remains tepid, supply is short in the domestic market, which is also favouring ferro silicon prices. Producers are optimistic that the prices will sustain as they believe the supply shortage might continue till the next month.
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