While the ferro-alloys industry prepares to gather in Chicago for the annual North American Ferro-alloys conference on September 25-27, Fastmarkets outlines some of the key topics likely to dominate discussions this year.
Where is the floor for ferro-vanadium prices? Ferro-vanadium prices in Chinese and European markets both 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 enforcement of the revised rebar policy was not as stringent as had been expected and because steel mills had increased their use of ferro-niobium to reduce their consumption of more costly vanadium. Chinese mills have shown more interest in buying ferro-niobium, according to market sources, because this alloy's prices are comparatively more stable and much cheaper than those of vanadium products, and do not have a history of price volatility. The benchmark ferro-vanadium price in Europe has fallen by almost 60% since the start of the year. Fastmarkets assessed the price at $28.40-29.20 per kg...