The market trend of import of ferroalloy as of 15 December 2014 is as follows.

<> Silicon Metal = In China, the market for 553 grade as a low-grade product again showed a declining trend. The present price is down by CNY 200 per ton from the end of November, but there has been a panic selling by some of producers which are in a hurry to sell in-hand stocks cutting the offer price by CNY250 - CNY300. Such producers as being in hurry to sell sometimes advance the shipping schedule without asking.

In Japan, both offer and contract prices are down by US$40 - US$50 per ton CIF Japan from the end of November. Contrary to the fact that major customers have already finished the procurement for the period from January to March in 2015, the orders are sporadically seen to avoid a risk of the foreign exchange loss due to ongoing yen depreciation by way of reducing the month-end stock through asking to deliver materials accordingly. Shippers also pay more attention to the fluctuation in the foreign exchange market than an ups and downs in the US dollar prices. This is because at the moment, Japanese yen became weaker against both of US dollar and Chinese yuan.

<> Ferro-silicon = The market in China shows a downward trend in December as well, and the price of 75 % product meant for domestic consumption was down by CNY50 per ton from the end of November. On the other hand, the price of products regularly exported to Japan is down by US$5 - US$10 per ton FOB, and there is a big difference between the upper and lower quotations. Major producers have concentrated on price maintenance, but some of medium- and small-sized producers have continued to sell at a cheap price for the purpose of converting the products into cash, which leads to the drop in the market price. However, the market watchers feel the distributed quantity of cheap products has become less. For a reference, currently ferro-silicon without sizing is distributed in the market, and becomes one of the cheap products.

The contract price of products distributed in Japan is down by US$10 per ton from the end of November. This is because the fluctuation in the Chinese domestic market has been reflected in a short time, and the shippers have preferred purchasing the cheap products. The offer price is drastically lowered by US$10 - US$30.
Russian products are mainly based on a long-term contract, and the trading in the spot market continues to be thin. Following the price drop of other sources, both offer and contract prices are down by US$10 from the end of November.

<> Silico Manganese = The price of Indian products was down up to US$40 from the end of November due to combined factors of the price fall in the Indian domestic market and the depreciation of Indian rupee against US dollar. Some of the producers cannot maintain its production at being more than a break-even point, and it is thought to be difficult that they will reduce the price unless the prices of raw materials (mainly imported manganese ore) are lowered.

• [Editor:Sophie]