India: Ferro silicon prices remain range-bound amid weak demand

Indian ferro silicon prices remained range-bound this week, falling marginally amid moderate demand, as domestic steel manufacturers await new price announcement from Bhutan's smelters for the first month of New Year 2023. Only after which they are expected to continue booking material for the following month.

However, a major Bhutanese ferro silicon supplier reduced offers to INR 120,000/t exw for January 2023 deliveries today morning, as per latest reports. Prices were lowered due to unacceptance in higher prices amid weak demand.

As per SteelMint's assessment on 30 December, Guwahati producers started offering at around INR 118,000/t exw.

End-user enquiries were also limited because of the expectation of a price correction. Furthermore, China's ferro silicon prices also remained stable on moderate demand. This led to stable the domestic ferro silicon prices.

Furthermore, semi-finished steel traded well in the first few days of the week. As a result, steel prices rose. Buyers began to refrain from booking the material at higher levels, however, protecting the price from further increase. Meanwhile, despite lower demand, sellers were unwilling to lower their prices because they had good bookings. As a result, weak semi-finished demand reduced ferro silicon demand, and prices remained stable.

Outlook

Market participants expect that the prices may remain stable in near-term, as they were expecting good demand in the beginning of New Year 2023.