| The TEX Report Topics < Ferro Alloys > | |
| HOME >> Topics List >> April, 2009 >> 09 (Thu) |
| China Has Reversed To Country To Import More Ferro-Alloys From That To Export Them |
| = Imports In Jan. - Feb. / 09 Exceeded Exports In Same Period |
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According to the customs-statistics released in China, the quantities of ferro-alloys imported and exported by China in January - February of 2009 broken down by items were as per the table attached hereto. Namely, China imported 242,211 tons of ferro-alloys and also exported 177,697 tons of ferro-alloys in January - February of 2009. China was so far the country to export more ferro-alloys but, as far as the quantities traded by China in January - February are concerned, the total quantity of ferro-alloys imported by China in the first 2 months of 2009 had exceeded that exported by China in the same period. The reason is due to the extraordinarily lowered level of exports and, since price of high carbon ferro-chrome produced in China has now come to be higher than those produced in South Africa, India and Kazakhstan, the imports of high carbon ferro-chrome into China have increased to a considerable extent, resulting in the phenomenon as mentioned above. The prices of ferro-silicon and silicon metal produced in China have still kept a power to be competitive on exports and, when these exports are recovered, this phenomenon has a probability to disappear from the market. However, as far as chrome and manganese based ferro-alloys are concerned, China has to rely chrome and manganese ores as raw materials on imports and is the country to export these ferro-alloys under conversion trade on consignment. Owing to the facts that China has been renovating the systems and strengthening the countermeasures for environmental pollution and the inflation in China has caused to rise prices of raw materials, the advantages of such costs as lower electric power fee, lower labor cost, lower transportation freight and rebate for conversion trade, which China had held in the past years, are in the direction to be losing gradually. Therefore, such case as that, China has shifted nearly half of their demand for ferro-chrome to imports (imported 1,090,000 tons in 2080), has come up to the surface. The matters, which prices of ferro-chrome in the international market have sharply fallen and the steeply decreased demand for ferro-chrome from western countries has caused a trend to sell more ferro-chrome to China as the kingdom of stainless steel, have come to be remarkable and deepened further its degrees from the beginning of 2009. The unit prices of ferro-chrome imported into China in February of 2009 and calculated from the values cleared the customs were (1) high carbon ferro-chrome : at 62.78 US-Cents per lb. of Cr CIF on Cr 65% base (or at 81.6 US-Cents per lb. of Cr CIF on Cr 50% base) and (2) low carbon ferro-chrome : at 93.5 US-Cents per lb. of Cr CIF on Cr 65% base. In view of the facts that China imported considerable quantities of chrome ores at higher prices in 2008 as raw material and has been suffering from high cost for raw material, the cost price to produce high carbon ferro-chrome in China is estimated to be higher than 65 US-Cents per lb. of Cr. The western suppliers are supposed to have taken the offensive to sell high carbon ferro-chrome for China at lower prices than 60 US-Cents per lb. of Cr CIF in February - March of 2009. The case of silico-manganese is not the same as that of ferro-chrome but China imported silico-manganese at US$871 per metric ton of material CIF in February of 2009 and this price level is fairly lower than that, at which China exported silico-manganese produced by themselves. Chinese silico-manganese has been offered for Japan at US$1,300 per metric ton CIF but, when export duty of 20% and ocean freight are deducted from this CIF price, its FOB price comes to US$1,050 per metric ton. Therefore, the price of silico-manganese imported into China is cheaper than that of Chinese silico-manganese being sold in domestic market. The unit price of manganese ore (Mn 15 - 16%) imported into China in the second half of 2008 was higher, having caused to increase the cost for production of silico-manganese in China. Indian silico-manganese is currently being offered at US$1,100 per metric ton CIF Japan, which is US$200 per ton lower than that of Chinese product. South Africa, India and Kazakhstan are the countries to produce raw materials for manganese-based and chrome-based ferro-alloys and, in view of a depression of the markets at present, the matter in question is whether Chinese products are able to compete with those produced in the three countries as mentioned above or not. |
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| last modified : Tue 14 Apr, 2009 [09:55] |
