In the European market, after making significant gains in April spot prices have stabilised in May. Realising how tight South African supply was, customers attempted to secure all their needs for Q2, and this rush of buying resulted in high-carbon (HC) spot prices surging by 20 cents/lb to average 270 cents/lb in April. Since then, sales have been almost non-existent, and are not expected to pick up before June. One side effect from surging prices is some smaller traders having their credit lines squeezed. As so much cash is now being tied up for any fixed volume of HC material, finding banks to finance large positions is hard. This, together with a slowdown in buying, resulted in prices stabilising in May, and trades have involved very small tonnages at just a few truckloads. Prices range between 260 cents/lb for lower-grade Indian HC and 300 cents/lb for higher-grade Kazak HC, and our weighted average for May has risen 100/lb to 280 cents/lb. Meanwhile, medium-carbon (MC) (0.1 percent) quotes increased, due to robust demand from speciality stainless mills, reduced MC output from Samancor, and HC input costs having surged recently. In May MC (0.1 percent) material was up 30 cents/lb to average 510 cents/lb.
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