Ferro-alloys prices will continue to trade lower going into 2020 amid slowing economic and steel production growth, Fastmarkets analyst, Amy Bennett, told delegates at the North-American Ferro-alloys conference in Chicago last week.
"Although ferro-alloy prices will almost certainly trend lower in 2020, given the weakening economic fundamentals, we do not expect to see prices retreat to 2015/2016 lows, assuming producers respond to declining demand with alloy production cuts as needed," Bennett said.On an annual basis in 2019, ferro-alloys prices have generally retreated from the highs of 2018. "Ferro-vanadium prices halved, but remain elevated relative to the long-term annual average. Ferro-silicon and ferro-chrome prices have both plunged by about 30% year on year in 2019. Manganese alloy price declines of around 3-7% year on year were comparatively modest, thanks to elevated ore prices," Bennett said.Ferro-vanadium Ferro-vanadium prices in the 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...