China’s Baosteel and Tsinghan, two of the major players in the global stainless steel industry, have kept their high carbon ferro chrome purchase price unchanged M-o-M at Yuan 7,000/MT (equivalent to 78 cents/lb) August deliveries, according to industry sources.
It was expected that Baosteel would either roll over its ferro chrome purchase price or cut it marginally, after a major hike in its previous month’s purchase price.
Trading activity was rather subdued in the last two weeks as the market was anticipating lower ferro chrome tender prices from the Stainless steel mills in China. There was also reduced dependency on imports by Chinese traders and abundant ferro chrome supply. The recent rise in ferro chrome prices prompted several producers in China to come back into operations.
However, now the confusion over prices should dissipate from the market, and trading activity should gather some momentum.
The other steelmakers are likely to roll over prices as well but some mills cutting prices marginally, that have sufficient inventory can’t be ruled out either.
The stainless steel industry is the largest consumer of high carbon ferro chrome and China’s domestic stainless steel prices have been rising over the past few week on low inventory and strong demand.
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