India: Prices of Ferro Chrome Remains Unchanged Amid Bearish Market

Ferro Chrome market seems sluggish for the month. However, the prices are stable but under pressure.

Low demand in the market is putting the Ferro Chrome prices under pressure as the traders are demanding to lower prices further and asking for the commodity at a much lesser price.

Prices for HC Ferro Chrome in the domestic market remained unchanged at INR 68000/MT and export prices are assessed at 75 cents/lb CIF China, 80 cents/lb CIF Korea and 81 cents/lb CIF Japan.

There is also very limited demand from the export market. The absence in deals were noticed in Japan and Korea apart from long term deals. There was a lack in demand from China as the Chinese buyers have already fulfilled their requirement for the use in spring Festival starting from February 5, and owing to the lackluster stainless steel market have lost any interest in inclination for buying.

Chinese Market Scenario:
Demand from China remained weak after the smelters completed restocking for use over the Chinese New year holidays. Moreover, Electricity restriction in China's major producing regions has resulted in production reduction, which has repressed the producers in stocking up on raw materials. Meanwhile, Taiyuan Iron and Steel (TISCO), one of the major Steel-mills in China, rolled over price prices for February from last month. Moreover, there are chances for the other major steel-mills in China to follow TISCO.

Producers were optimistic about the rise in prices post Spring festival celebrations with the rise in the steel demand. But with this decision in line, producers are little more pessimistic about the market.

SteelMint learned that most market participants hold a pessimistic outlook towards the future market trend. With the growing pressure on the market, there is a high probability for smelters to undersell products when taking into account the low demand and reduced ore prices.