China will be able to absorb the large volumes of ore and ferro-alloys supply it imported in the first half of this year, but supply concerns loom, Fastmarkets head of research Alistair Ramsay said during a recent Fastmarkets webinar on Covid-19 and what it means for trade flow and demand for key ferro-alloys and ores.
"It is been an extraordinary period with record levels of ores and ferro-alloys imports for China," Ramsay said. "We've never seen steel production that strong and we've never seen steel demand in China that strong either - over the first seven months of the year steel production was at nearly 3% year-on-year growth rate from what it was already a spectacular 2019."While the Chinese ferro-vanadium price has been underpinned by reduced supply and improved demand since late April, the price in Europe had been sliding until recently due to weakening...