Ferrovanadium spot prices have dropped $1.45/lb to $11.80 in just two weeks, possibly an indication that production of high-strength steels and tool steels is about to soften and push the alloying metal's price down again.
The alloying metal was selling as low as $7.40/lb in April because of a serious overhang of inventory and collapsed demand from specialty steelmakers. Prices inched back up from May to August in line with reduced stockpiles caused by expanded exports and slow and gradual improvement in purchases by the domestic steel companies.
However, transaction prices have turned south as "the market has been as flat as a pancake in the U.S. for the past five or six weeks," a producer tells AMM.com. With regards to purchasing by specialty steelmakers, "just nothing is happening."
Some traders believe that the market price will fall again soon. One trader has been telling the press that "the reality is market much weaker than the trade journals have been reporting." Yet another says that "the U.S. market is pretty thin on demand at the moment."
Source: Purchasing.com
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