The appreciation of the South African rand since mid-November 2017 should preclude near-term price drops for the country's ores and alloys and will probably lead to further increases, according to producers.
Metal Bulletin's indices for South African manganese ore, chrome ore and charge chrome have all been rising since early in December amid strong demand from China. Of those three commodities, the rand's appreciation has had the greatest effect on charge chrome producers. "The rand has played a reasonably large part in price increases. The market is realizing that if prices don't go up supply won't continue," one chrome supplier told Metal Bulletin. "It is more of an issue for ferro-chrome producers because more smelters are close...