The market trend of import of ferroalloy as of 27 February 2015 is as follows.

<> Silicon Metal = Currently in China, the activities of many of producers and trading firms are slow right after Chinese New Year holidays (18th to 24th of February) were over. Because of that, both offer and contract prices of low-grade product of 5.5.3 grade remained unchanged. However, the price of high-grade product of 2.2.0.2 grade was up due to the shortage of spot goods, and Chinese producers seem to raise offer prices each and every day. In case the price of a high-grade product continues to rise, there will be a possibility that the producers which hastily restart operation will ship a lot of low-grade products and the situation of the supply being in excess will be generated again.

In Japan, the demand from the aluminium industry is still weak, which in turn leads to a stable price, and the current contract price has remained unchanged from the end of January in spite of a thin trading.

<> Ferro-silicon = Currently in China, Chinese New Year holidays (18th to 24th of February) just finished, and the activities of Chinese producers and steel mills are slow due to slumping prices of ferro-silicon and steel products. The small and medium-sized producers are taking a negative stance toward restarting operation, and what the market watchers in China are thinking is (1) The operating rate of steel mills will go up during March to April, which leads to increased consumption of ferro-silicon, (2) The prolonged situation of the operating rate of ferro-silicon producers being low enables the demand and supply which is now in oversupply to be improved and (3) The adverse impact from cheap-priced Indian products will be alleviated in the overseas markets. With regard to the export products, in view of the price level being low in Asia, the offer price meant for Japan was adjusted downward, but the contract price has been maintained at the same price as that before holidays owing to a thin trading.

In Japan, as the price of Indian silico manganese is cheap, the steel mills which cut the rate of using ferro-silicon have increased. The price of ferro-silicon has no power enough to be lowered in response to customers' decreased buying motivation, and the contract price maintained a level of mid-February.

The price of products distributed in the market can't be reduced, either and both offer and contract prices remained flat. Customers' low buying motivation seems to have the opposite effect of preventing price competition from coming into being.

Russian products are mainly based on a long-term contract, and the thin trading is going on in the spot market. As is the case in other sources, both offer and contract prices remain unchanged..

<> Silico Manganese = Since the European Commission has been conducting investigation on imposition of antidumping (AD) duty on Indian silico manganese, the situation of the increase in the distributed quantity in the Asian market has continued. In addition, such rumor comes up to the surface in India as the rate of export incentive will be reduced from April 1, and the sellers which are in a hurry to sell products as March shipment are many, which results in generating sales at a cheap price. Many of producers will be below a break-even point when the price is US$900 per ton under normal circumstances, but such cases occurred as impossible production and sales at a cheap price arising from the rumor of the reduction in an incentive rate, and lowered the market price further. At the moment, the incentive rate is 5.5% and is also a cause which creates a big difference between a standard offer price submitted by Indian seller and a level of contract price for Japanese customers to buy from shippers.

The contract price in Japan was down by more than US$70 from the end of January. As mentioned above, the anticipation of a price fall will be strong during March because of the movement in India to rush to sell products as March shipment.

On the other hand, the movements of producers and customers in China are dull at the turn of Chinese New Year. Slumping prices make both production and business negotiation negative. There was no movement in both offer and contract prices when compared with the ones before Chinese New Year, and there was no particular contract.

<> Charge Chrome = Japanese customers and overseas producers seem to finish determining the purchase quantity for the fiscal year 2015. On the one hand, the benchmark price negotiation on South African charge chrome for the period during April to June is expected to start in mid-March, and many of market participants expect this time's negotiation to finish by the end of March. The production volume of stainless steel in 2015 is anticipated to be up form the prior year, but there are lots of unclear things for judgement of prices such as possibility of the production volume of charge chrome being more than its consumption and the hike of electricity rate from April in South Africa, and therefore it is difficult to forecast it at the moment.

For a reference, the purchase of spot goods has continued to be at a low level in Japan, and there has been neither offer nor contract.

<> Low-carbon Ferro-chrome = Independently of Chinese New Year , there has been no movement in the price of low-carbon ferro-chrome, either. It's been stabilized against a background of firm demand and the bottleneck suffered by producers, and both offer and contract prices have continued to be flat.

 

• [Editor:Sophie]