Indian producers kept their ferro silicon offers unchanged on a weekly basis amid muted demand, as many are waiting for the Bhutanese plants to release their new offers.
According to SteelMint’s assessment on 29 July, offers of Indian producers remained stable w-o-w at around INR 144,600/t exw while offers by Bhutanese producers inched down by INR 1,100/t w-o-w to around INR 145,000/t exw.
According to the producers, demand shrank this week, so market participants expect that Bhutan’s producers are likely to cut prices.
A mill source said, “Many buyers didn’t plan to accumulate stocks, and their stocks kept rolling up.” This also kept prices stable.
In addition, many buyers lowered their consumption by around 30% in July as demand for end products shrank and the operation rate decreased. In order to boost sales, the major suppliers could not raise prices further.
China’s ferro silicon prices expected to stabilise
Ferro silicon prices in China fell by RMB 200/t ($30/t) w-o-w to RMB 7,900/t ($1,173/t) ex-Inner Mongolia. Several major ferro silicon production areas such as Ningxia, Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and Gansu suspended production facilities last week, which is expected to stabilise the market. As a result, the supply and demand balance is expected to improve, and prices seem to have stopped declining.
Ferro silicon futures on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange (ZCE) for September delivery rose 5% w-o-w to RMB 7,976/t ($1,184/t) on 29 July as ferro silicon production facilities suspended operations and market participants in China believe prices may improve.
Outlook
As a result of weak demand and high inventory, market participants expect the mainstream price of ferro silicon to decrease further next week.
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