Demand for Indian Ferro Chrome has been observed to be very low recently. China, being the largest importer, is currently oversupplied as it stocked beforehand on account of Chinese New Year festival.
Both Taiyuang Iron & Steel or Tisco and Tsingshan Steel, China’s two top stainless producers, cut their high-carbon Ferro Chrome procurement prices by Yuan 800/MT (USD117/MT) M-o-M for February deliveries. Currently, Ferro Chrome is being offered at around 110 cents/lb CIF China but the buyers are demanding an offer of about 104-105 cents/lb. On other hand, Ferro Chrome is being offered at 117 cents/lb and 115 cents/lb for CIF Japan and S.Korea respectively. There has been no spot demand from the Japanese market, as Japanese mills generally do not depend on spot supplies.
However, some Indian producers were willing to wait and not cut their offer prices yet, as buying enthusiasm from China is limited anyway with the Chinese New Year holiday about to come.
On the domestic front, although the allocation of Ferro chrome has been stemmed. Current offer prices for HC Ferro Chrome (60% grade) is around INR 95,000/MT (Ex-works Odisha). However, the domestic buyers are trying to negotiate it at much below the offer price.
Leave a Reply