April's UG2 chrome ore price rally was capped in the week to Friday May 1 after China's major stainless steel mills all raised their ferro-chrome tender prices by a lower-than-expected amount, while the charge chrome assessment ticked up slightly.
Fastmarkets'
South Africa UG2 concentrates index, basis 42%, cif China held at $147 per tonne on Friday, unchanged from the previous week.
The index has jumped by $33 per tonne (28.9%) since the beginning of April due to supply disruptions caused by South Africa's Covid-19 lockdown, following also the rapid increase of portside prices for cargo at Chinese ports.
The widely held view among market participants was that the increase in Chinese stainless steel mills' tender prices for ferro-chrome would further underpin the growth in chrome ore price.
Yet the increase for alloy prices fell short of the rise in ore prices. Market participants had anticipated an increase of around 300-500 yuan in the tender prices for May deliveries for stainless steel mills to compensate for the higher prices of chrome ore, the main raw material for ferro-chrome production.
Taiyuan Iron & Steel took the lead...