The New Year holiday dampened activity and price movements in markets in Asia, Europe and the United States in the week ended Friday January 4.
Ore and alloy prices unchanged in China, South Korea Japanese market on holiday Ferro-chrome in Europe stable Alloy prices flat in the US UG2 chrome ore prices in China were unchanged in the week Friday January 4, amid a comparatively quiet market in the first week after the New Year holiday. Fastmarkets' UG2 chrome ore index, cif China, sat at $155 per tonne on Friday. The price of Turkish lumpy chrome ore into main Chinese ports was also stable at $215-225 per tonne. Business was done at $155 per tonne for standard UG2 material. But some sellers had sold out of their February volume and did not want to start selling their March volume yet. Chinese ferro-alloy smelters showed little interest in securing seaborne cargoes as many have stocked up for the Chinese New Year holiday (February 4-10). "Whether we procure extra volume depends on the price of ore material...