Indian chrome ore dispatches inched up by 1% m-o-m in December 2022. In the wake of strong demand for ferro chrome during the month, particularly from the export market, Chinese buyers began purchasing prior to the spring festival. Moreover, they were willing to accept a slight price hike in order to maintain normal operations.
As a result, producers purchased a large amount of chrome ore. Furthermore, hike in imported UG2 ore prices amid good demand as a result of low stocks at Chinese ports also turned Indian smelters’ interest to domestic chrome ore.
Overall chrome ore dispatches in 2022 (CY’22) increased by 9% y-o-y as against 3.35 mnt in CY’21.
Procurement trend
Dispatches from Tata Steel increased by 30% m-o-m in December with a major volume of around 41% kept for captive consumption. Meanwhile, dispatches from Ferro Alloys Corporation Limited (FACOR) increased by 11% m-o-m in December with the entire volume of around 12,723 t kept for captive consumption.
However, dispatches from Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Limited (IMFA) dropped by 29% and 10%, respectively m-o-m in December.
Tata Steel (58,200 t) and IMFA (53,430 t) remained the two largest receivers of chrome ore in December. Tata Steel sourced the entire raw material from its captive mines while IMFA sourced its raw material from captive mines as well as from OMC.
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