Citic Metal, the exclusive sales agent in China for ferro-niobium from Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Minera????o (CBMM), surprised the market by keeping its third-quarter price unchanged from the previous quarter, sources told Fastmarkets.
The market had been expecting CBMM to lower its ferro-niobium price, which has gradually lost its allure compared with vanadium products because of the declining ferro-vanadium price in China, but it kept it at the second-quarter level of around 190,000-22,000 yuan per tonne (equivalent to $42-49 per kg).Ferro-vanadium prices in the Chinese and European markets hit all-time highs last year, partly because of an anticipated increase in demand from the implementation of new rebar manufacturing standards in China from November 1 last year. But prices began to drop sharply late last year when market participants realized that...