January 25, 2012: The ferro alloys segment showed mixed trends in January as steel mills remained cautious because of stagnant demand for the end products, market sources told ISMW.

The ferro chrome market saw some northbound movement in the month of January due to power price increase and slightly tight supply in spot market. Prices also went up slightly due to increase in production cost. In the domestic market, ferro chrome (high carbon 60% min) moved up to Rs 67.50/kg, up by Rs 66.50/kg from January 4 prices.

The ferro molybdenum market remained stable with a positive bias in January. Ferro molybdenum (60% min) was steady at Rs 1,105/kg since January 6, after a slight rise from Rs 1,095/kg (basic) on January 5. However, some suppliers remained upbeat. They believe that since there is not much material in spot market, domestic converters will rush for deals as soon as the European market picks up steam.

The domestic market for ferro manganese remained sluggish in January as the Indian ferro manganese market has not shown any positive movement recently. The price is close to the production cost. The experts do not anticipate that the market can get better in near term, but they are optimistic that the market will rebound when the world economy improves. The High Carbon ferro-manganese (65-70%) is currently at Rs 48/kg, down by Re 1/kg from prices at the beginning of the month.

The market for ferro silicon remained stagnant in January. In the domestic market, ferro silicon (70% min) prevailed at around Rs 61/kg. The domestic ferro silicon market remained slow as most producers offer was stable while the sales were not good. The transaction levels were thus sluggish. Although the Chinese ferro silicon market is on a slightly upward trend, the market feels that at the domestic front a downward trend is likely for some more time due to the slow market and high stocks level.

The domestic silico manganese market remained sluggish in January with the prices exhibiting a south bound movement. The silico-manganese (60/14) across the country moved down to around Rs 47/kg, down by Re 1/kg from month-beginning prices. Owing to the global economic conditions, the market is sluggish at present.

Further, the market is unlikely to see much change before the Spring Festival, thus the transaction activities were sluggish. Market expects that downstream customers may purchase more ferro silicon after the Spring festival, though the market is unlikely to pick up in the near future.

Source: ISMW