India: Ferro Silicon Prices stable despite falling steel market

Prices of Ferro Silicon have remained stable for the past two weeks despite the weakening of the steel market. However, such stability in prices is attributed to the lower stocks with the producers. Ferro Silicon prices have been hitting low for quite some time now and are the lowest in the past three years.

Producer sources revealed to SteelMint that many plants are planning for shutdown as operating at such low cost is not viable to operate. Moreover, due to Assam floods, importing Coke is also an issue that needs to be checked. Therefore, even though the demand is soft, suppliers are reluctant to decrease prices due to the high production cost incurred.

In the global market, the prices of Ferro Silicon remained stable. Although the Chinese Ferro Silicon market rebounded last week and the prices rose, it did not maintain its gains this week. The prices in Russia and China both fell this week. In Russia, the prices are at USD865/MT FOB and Chinese quotations are back at USD 1045/MT FOB. In the domestic market, the prices in Bhutan and Guwahati both remained firm at INR 62,000/MT Ex-plant.

On the future outlook, the Ferro Silicon prices have bottomed out but any significant increase in the prices cannot be foreseen.