Despite previously announcing that it would not be importing any ferrochrome in the first quarter of this year, Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel have announced that as a result of the adjustment of existing contracts, the opportunity to purchase high carbon ferrochrome has been discovered and the company is looking to buy at a benchmark CIF price of 87 cents per pound of chromium.
The benchmark price of high carbon ferrochrome settled for shipments in October to December quarter of 2008 was 193 cents per pound of chromium CIF Japan.
As a result of cuts in Japanese steel production ferrochrome shipments from the final quarter of 2008 have largely been stocked at Japanese mills and carried over to production for the January to March quarter. Because of these excessive stocks Nippon Steel & Sumikin Stainless Steel decided to skip new contracts for shipments in this quarter.
However, some Japanese steel companies, producing special steel for the automobile industry, have maintained their production, with the result that they have a requirement to purchase high carbon ferrochrome for shipments in the January to March 2009 quarter.
Source: Steel Guru
No comments:
Post a Comment