Ferrochrome

摘要

Following three years of sizeable market deficits, our supply/demand analysis suggests that the global ferrochrome market edged into a position of surplus in mid 2004. It is clear that the producer response to the historically high market prices that have been achieved over the last 18 months has been significant. For 2004 as a whole we estimate that global output of high carbon ferrochrome and charge chrome will increase by almost 10 percent compared with 2003 levels to total 4.4m tonnes. Not surprisingly, the South African producers have led the way in terms of increased output and have accounted for over 60 percent of the rise in global production during 2004. In total we estimate that output in South Africa increased by around 300,000 tonnes via expansion projects and by producers operating existing facilities at close to full capacity. The other countries that also expanded output during 2004, and accounted for around 40 percent of the rise, included China, India, Russia, Brazil, Kazakhstan and Turkey. It should be noted that our demand/supply analysis of the ferrochrome market takes into account the