China no longer the market of last resort following reduction of EU prices

摘要

China was the market of last resort for ferrochrome sellers in 2014, but that has changed over the lastmonth or so. The decline in ferrochrome prices, especially in Europe, now means that internationalproducers can potentially make the same or even better margins by exporting material to China.Ferrochrome producers' problem is that these margins remain modest at current market levels,however. Benchmark prices for South African charge chrome fell by a surprisingly large 7?/lb for firstquarter deliveries and CRU has heard spot market deals agreed at low price levels in Asia within thelast week. The pressure of declining charge chrome prices has also been weighing on high-carbonferrochrome prices in Europe and the USA.