This apparent contradiction had led to growing concerns among China’s ferrochrome smelters, which have been facing squeezed margins. By our understanding, some of China’s ferrochrome smelters have been contemplating closure or a switch in product mix (i.e. using their furnaces to produce other ferroalloys) given their predicament.
They will have been pleased then that recent weeks have seen this apparently unsustainable trend come to a halt, or at least a slowdown. Chrome ore prices have continued to rise but finally so too have ferrochrome prices.
Nevertheless, China’s...