India: Ferro silicon prices remain rangebound amid moderate demand

Indian ferro silicon prices remained rangebound this week amid moderate demand as domestic producers began booking material for next month as they expect the price of ferro silicon in India to remain firm for at least two to three weeks.

On the other hand, major Indian suppliers continued to hike prices during the electricity shortage, but buyers refrained from booking material at higher prices and negotiated hard. As a result, prices remained within a certain range.

According to SteelMint assessment on 26 August, ferro silicon (70%) offers were at around INR 150,000/t exw from both Guwahati and Bhutan. Around 600 t of transaction volumes were recorded this week.

In addition, some buyers were waiting for Bhutan to announce new prices. As a result, the market saw moderate demand.

China's market overview:
The Chinese ferro silicon price remained stable at RMB 7,900/t ($1,152/t) with a marginal correction on a weekly basis, as assessed on 25 August. With the influence of power curtailment policy, however, it has shown a slight upward trend, the operating rate of silicon factories has dropped, and the disk price has recovered slightly, which has led to an increase in factory quotations.

Furthermore, the futures prices rose 8% to RMB 8,144/t ($1,187/t) on 26 August compared to 19 August for October deliveries. The export volume and transaction volume of ferro silicon increased as some overseas buyers started to place orders this week.

Outlook
It is likely that ferro silicon prices will remain stable in coming weeks due to a shortage of electricity in India, which will persist for the next couple of weeks, while buyers are still willing to purchase minimum quantities.