Ferro-chrome prices in Asia and Europe have been trending upward since mid-May amid strong demand, with tightened supply from India fueling the bullish sentiment further in those markets, according to industry sources.
India - ranked as the world's fourth-largest producer of ferro-chrome - produced around 1.28 million tonnes of the ferro-alloy in 2019, but last year it produced just 970,000 tonnes - a drop of about a quarter - due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they said.
Lockdowns and restrictions to contain the spread of the coronavirus in the South Asian country have kept production under pressure in 2021, primarily with smelters downsizing their operations due to the soaring cost of procuring chrome ore, the main raw material for ferro-chrome production.
Costly raw materials
Indian chrome ore prices have soared since the second quarter of 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic started to hit mining operations in the country. The situation became worse after the state-owned Odisha Mining Corp (OMC) raised the base price for its chrome ore auction early this year.
It set a base price of 17,955 rupees ($240) per tonne for chrome...