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Articles
What to expect from FeCr market development in H2 2025 – is the glass half full or half empty?
While the ferrochrome (FeCr) market usually slows in summer, signs suggest that this quiet period could be masking deeper supply issues already in motion. Despite significant production cuts in the RSA, the market has not shown significant reaction. We expect that once the restocking period starts, those cuts will put upward pressure on the FeCr prices, and it might happen faster than market participants could react. Especially with the latest stainless steel production numbers being close to 2024 results, around 60+ million tonnes.
Read more.“Last Men Standing” from “Magnificent Seven” of a decade ago
In 2014-2015 South African ferrochrome industry had 7 major producers, with installed FeCr capacity over 5 million tonnes annually. Now there are only 2 left (with around 4 million tonnes of installed capacity), while others completely shut down. Due to current market conditions, the remaining producers are struggling to continue operations. In the beginning of 2025, both Samancor and Glencore-Merafe announced that they are expecting to cut FeCr production. While Samancor did not indicate the level of cuts, recently Glencore-Merafe stated that these cuts could reach 2/3 of the current production level, or almost 1 million tonnes.
Read more.SoftMetal and arbitrage opportunity
Arbitrage opportunity is one of the fundamentals of commodity trading. Unfortunately, it rarely occurs in the ferroalloys market, due to difficulty with price discovery. Learn about the latest examples of arbitrage opportunities in the ferroalloys market and how SoftMetal can provide its users with the ability to attain it.
Read more.2025 Standing at a roundabout: Part 2
2024 in the ferroalloys industry has been very eventful and many changes anticipated before were materializing and altering the landscape of the global ferroalloys industry factors, thus raising the question of “What’s Next?”.
Read more.Oriental Express part 2: Chromium Ore is the last to fall
One of the chrome related metals shows a strong price level support, while also experiencing similar pricing drawbacks. To learn about this metal and how it price compares to its peers, follow the link below:
Read more.Oriental Express: FeCr export from India and China into developed markets
Export development for FeCr from India and China over the last few years
Read more.Handicaped in heaven
Understanding supply/demand balance as well as market dynamics has become even more complicated and complex.
Read more.Farewell to EQB
Merafe Resources has officially announced discontinuation of publishing its European Quarterly FeCr Benchmark (EQB), one of the leading indicators for FeCr market in Europe and globally for decades.
Read more.Ferrochrome market Overview and SoftMetal advatanges
Brief overview of Ferrochrome Pricing Mechanisms and advantages of SoftMetal, that it provides for market of complex metals
Read more.UNICHROME AG Presentation at 24th International Chrome & Nickel & Stainless Steel & New Energy Forum in Nanjing, China on September 13-15, 2023
Ferrochrome and Ferroalloys market development through volatile 2023 and beyond
Read more.What advantages SoftMetal brings to metal alloy market by using Confidential Computing
Why market liquidity, transparency and confidentiality are important for complex metals markets and how SoftMetal can significantly improve those important aspects of the market.
Read more.Too much of heaven, can bring you on the ground
While price for ferrochrome remains on a high level, there was no indication of new projects or investments. Another commodity saw inflow of investments and went from "undersupply" to "oversupply". What is that commodity and how it is similar to ferrochrome find in a link below.
Read more.How can ferroalloys market benefit from ideas successfully implemented in telecom industry?
Alloys and some metals, including ferrochrome have many varieties to consider during market negotiations. Different grades and subgrades, puzzling indexes and definitions make price discovery challenging.
Read more.A few highlights on SoftMetal trading principals and technology
SoftMetal is a powerful auction-exchange platform that allows multi-element metals, starting with ferrochrome to be bought and sold via secure trading. In a competitive landscape, the platform will provide you with rapid price discovery and a transparent spot price for ferrochrome.
Read more.UNICHROME AG Presentation at ICDA Chromium 2022 Conference in Istanbul, Turkey on October 18-19, 2022
Chromium and its alloys – market development through 2022 volatile recovery to sustainable future growth, a view from our major shareholder.
Read more.How to improve the functionality of FeCr market going forward or "Don't let a tail to wag the dog"
Would exchange work for ferrochromium market? Strictly speaking not due to complexity of different parameters of the product. But this market requires improvement to its functionality in order to provide both producers and consumer with guidance for further development. Find more about a solution with functionalities far beyond of what classical exchange algorithm can offer, while ensuring similar level of transparency and provability and clearly reflecting supply/demand balance.
Read more.Eastern Express. FeCr market in China vs Rest of the World?
During 2021 global FeCr prices rose to the record levels (last seen in 2008), led in H1 2021 by China and followed quickly by the market in the RoW. By the end of H2 a risk of market correction became visible. Indeed it has corrected in China during November December, but now is on an upside move again. How will other FeCr markets react and what factors could determine market direction in the near-term?
Read more.No time to buy? Or not a time to buy? FeCr market in 2021 and looking forward to 2022
Same time last year chrome market was in the middle of uncertainty going forward into 2021, while other commodities such as nickel, copper and iron ore had already returned to price levels last seen 7-8 years ago. In fact, in 2021 ferrochrome market performed significantly better compared to other commodities. By the end of the year growth momentum has mostly evaporated, and one can expect some correction going into 2022, while possibility for stabilization or even further growth should not be disregarded, considering massive increase of production costs worldwide, taking place due to numerous factors, such as additional need for environmental investments, increase in energy prices and increase in fiscal pressure for miners as well as other factors. Follow the link to read how FeCr market improved in 2021 and our outlook for 2022.
Read more.How much is the fish or how to compare different, yet similar? Way forward to make exchange trade of complex alloys
Ferroalloys market continues its rollercoaster: market started to gain steam since Q1 2021, which extended through Q2/Q3, while prices for some of alloys such as ferrochrome reached levels not seen since 2008 by now, after a subpar and highly depressed https://unichrome.ch/quizas-quizas-quizas-cr-market-expectations-for-q3-and-its-long-overdue-recovery-hopes/ Edit Remove 2019-2020. Despite such strong movement, the market issues remain in place, with prices of similar FeCr material having a very substantial difference level based on chemical composition, grades, geographical location, and some indexes reacting to price changes with a delay. One such example is the difference between European Quarterly Benchmark (now at $1.80 per lb/Cr, up by 54% YTD) and China import Charge chrome 50% Cr index, CIF Shanghai, duty unpaid, $ per Ib/Cr (now at $1.32 per lb/Cr, up by 81% YTD). It is the same or similar material, but the numbers represent the price indexes used by the market in two different regions. Though historically logistics costs were relatively low, even with the current rates increase, these remain a fraction of the price gap. This price difference could leave somebody with the impression that there is a price arbitrage opportunity, however, the opportunity does not exist, since the actual difference is in the price indexes, rather than the actual sales price. This example, among https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2099500-2q-cr-benchmark-highlights-cracks-in-price-mechanism Edit Remove others, indicates that the pricing system for FeCr is very outdated and requires serious modernization. Below are the most common pricing indicators for FeCr: Bidding Price – applied for HC, LC and Ch Cr in China Announced monthly by the major stainless-steel producers in China. While the price is announced, other very significant details such as number of competitors, individual discounts, or incentives, as well as total tonnage in some cases remains undisclosed. Thus, transparency is limited. European Quarterly Benchmark – EQB –applied for Ch Cr and some other grades European Quarterly Benchmark is settled between the largest ferrochrome producer and one major stainless-steel producer on a quarterly basis. Total tonnage and individual discount, which could be substantial, are not disclosed as well. Survey Pricing – applied for HC/LC FeCr Provided by publishing agencies, which are recognized throughout the market. Based on weekly gathered information from market participants, while the total amount of assessed deals is much lower than the total market, due to the fact that more than 90% of the deals are conducted by formulas. Often used as a basis for contractual formulas. Spot deals concluded offline/online Confidential price agreed between seller and buyer at the time of their inquiry, offline or via online negotiations. This approach lacks information about total tonnage, the number of competitors, guaranteed feedback, and results of negotiations in some cases, together with absences of liquidity and transparency. Thus, this could hardly be considered a relevant market indicator. Sometimes used for survey pricing. Idea to follow FeCr Bidding Prices in China to value FeCr globally is not a solution as well. While Bidding Prices in China became an important index, using it for contractual formulas outside China will create more difficulties for both suppliers and consumers, as https://unichrome.ch/truck-tire-will-not-fix-town-car-broken-wheel/ Edit Remove was evident a few years ago. By now, increased electricity shortage, environmental challenges for domestic production, and volatile domestic prices in China, makes it even less possible. https://www.metalbulletin.com/Article/3863668/Search-results/ASIAN-FERRO-ALLOYS-CONF-European-market-should-use-portal-to-establish-pricing-mechanismtrader.html Edit Remove New ways to establish market price, while fixing issues with the current pricing mechanisms such as being illiquid and lack of the most relevant information in order to judge its reliability, have been developed in the meanwhile. However, the creation of a traditional exchange for ferroalloys has also been difficult: Lack of standardization and multichemical quality parameters for each product, which could have its own value in use, depending on the individual producer from one side and the consumer from the other side. Due to the above reasons, any standardization leads to a decrease in liquidity and a lack of publicly agreed product value. Consequently, classic exchange mechanisms were not successfully applied to auction trading of ferroalloy products. UNCIHROME AG has developed a concept and platform for ferroalloys trading, based on a significant modification of traditional exchange algorithms, taking into account multiple quality parameters such as chemical, size, and geographical, and accounts for both https://web.stanford.edu/~milgrom/publishedarticles/A%20Theory%20of%20Auctions%20and%20Competitive%20Bidding,%20II.pdf Edit Remove private and public values. This platform combines the advantage of impossibility to change the records, similar to blockchain (without using blockchain), and end-to-end encryption, ensuring the confidentiality of trader's interest and invariability of the results. Thus, providing buyers and sellers with a secure, confidential, and liquid marketplace to conduct business in a secured and tamperproof environment. This concept is implemented in a platform called SoftMetal. To learn more about it and its benefits, please follow the links below: https://softmetal-website.secretarium.org/ Edit Remove SoftMetal home page
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