FOCUS: Ferro-titanium producers face scrap challenge on alloy price drop

European ferro-titanium producers are increasingly looking for feedstock alternatives, such as vacuum scrap, to tackle weaker alloy bid prices from consumers in the steel sector.

Some producers have been switching more of their intake of smelting feed to make alloy, using higher quality vacuum scrap, after turnings prices jumped by almost 65% since the start of the year. Turnings scrap has been in short supply this year due to a slump in the aerospace sector, which has been affected by the loss of travel amid restrictions to limit the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Titanium scrap is produced across the aerospace supply chain, such as in super-alloy production, and aircraft and defense manufacturing. The fall in end-user consumption for titanium contained in steel products happened after heavy industry imposed measures to enable social distancing at factories, meaning steelmakers needed less feedstock; squeezing margins for ferro-titanium producers struggling to manage higher input costs against downward pressure on their output prices.

Consequently, steel mills are bargaining hard to resist higher prices for ferro-titanium, and some have managed...

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