Chrome Market Report March 2017
2017-04-19 17:56:47 【Print】
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Due to tight supply, prices for ferrochrome went up in the Chinese spot market in March. Producers for ferrochrome generally kept low operating rate as several provinces conducted environmental inspection in South China where the wet season hadn’t begun. Because of firm prices, downstream buyers mainly purchased from hand to mouth, resulting in limited transactions in the spot market. Considering the shortage in supply, producers generally expected that prices in the spot market as well as bidding prices for ferrochrome were likely to go up in April. However, April bidding prices released by domestic steel mills in the last week of March only went up by RMB300-500/t (USD43.55-72.58/t), much lower than the expected RMB1,000/t (USD145/t). Affected by downward prices for chrome ore and buyers’ watchful attitude toward the future market, it is expected that spot prices for ferrochrome will decline in April but the decreased range will be limited.
Prices for chrome ore continued to keep firm at high levels in the overseas market in March and those for ferrochrome rose in the domestic market, which made traders for chrome ore be confident towards the future market and successively raise their prices in early-to-mid March. However, downstream buyers mainly purchased from hand to mouth, leading to limited transactions in the spot market. With bidding prices from steel mills lower than expected in late March, traders for chrome ore expected that prices for the material will be lower and thus they were eager to sell. Prices for chrome ore went down in the domestic market in late March and overseas producers were under greater pressure of stocks with overseas prices loosening accordingly. It is expected that prices for chrome ore will go down in April.
Prices for chrome ore continued to keep firm at high levels in the overseas market in March and those for ferrochrome rose in the domestic market, which made traders for chrome ore be confident towards the future market and successively raise their prices in early-to-mid March. However, downstream buyers mainly purchased from hand to mouth, leading to limited transactions in the spot market. With bidding prices from steel mills lower than expected in late March, traders for chrome ore expected that prices for the material will be lower and thus they were eager to sell. Prices for chrome ore went down in the domestic market in late March and overseas producers were under greater pressure of stocks with overseas prices loosening accordingly. It is expected that prices for chrome ore will go down in April.
