A surge in Chinese high-carbon ferro-chrome production last year led to a jump in buying interest for chrome ore, resulting in a significant build-up of ore inventories in the country that is dampening market sentiment.
At the same time, the increased output among Chinese ferro-chrome smelters is exceeding demand from the downstream stainless steel sector and is putting pressure on China's market for imported alloy.This resulted in a jump in Chinese chrome ore imports; the country imported 15.9 million tonnes of chrome ore last year, an increase of 11% from the 14.3 million tonnes imported in 2018, according to...