POSCO cut the latest weekly purchase price for the second week of April which set at RMB6850/mt(delivered price, by cash).Huijin stainless released the bidding price at RMB7100/mt(by acceptance).
Main stainless steel mills hit the raw material price by setting the low purchase price, which made ferrochrome market run weakly during this week. The current quotation of HC FeCr lower to RMB 6900-7100/mt (USD0.85-0.87/1b 50% basis ex-work price by cash)in China, many ferrochrome producers in china had to lower the current quotation due to weak demand.
The price of low carton ferrochrome and ex-low carton ferrochrome kept stable without many deals. FeCr55C25 from Jilin province quoted RMB12, 300-12,400/mt (USD1.965-1,981/mt, export duty not included), and the price of FeCr55C10 was RMB12,400-12,500/mt (USD1,981-1,997/mt, export duty not included). All the prices above included tax.
The price of Sillionchrome 72# was RMB 8000-8100/mt in northwest of china and metal chrome 99-A quote at RMB56, 000-57,000/mt.
For international market, the price of South Africa and India increased slightly as they quoted USD0.90-0.91 /b and 0.0.91-0.92/b. HC ferrochrome in Europe maintained at USD1.02-1.06/b and in America down to USD 1.00-1.03/b.
High supply and soft demand weakened the chrome market, big manufacturers struggled to maintain the production in order to satisfy old customers. Chinese ferrochrome operation rate is higher than 70% according to the rough statistics by ferro-alloys.com, the market is expected to under great pressure in short time.