Sharp fall in prices, Turkey's chrome ore market is active

By lowering their offers, Turkish chrome ore suppliers partially managed to resume buying activities by Chinese customers. Meanwhile, market participants were divided on the further development of the situation.

After Tsingshan Holdings Group's July tender price for high carbon ferrochromium dropped, Turkish chrome nugget offers fell by an average of 45 dollars over two weeks to 340-350 dollars CIF China. Due to lack of trade and excess inventories, Turkish traders decided to make concessions. As a result, several trades were recorded in the market with prices at the lower end of the range.

At the same time, chrome concentrate business activity fell to zero and prices fell from 400-405 dollars CIF China to 380-385 dollars CIF China.

The likely further fall in market prices will lead to a sharp drop in Turkey's chrome ore production, which is already facing high costs for Turkey's mining companies. Taking this into account, actual offers for concentrate should be 20-40% higher than current prices, but local traders deny such comments as speculative. "Even at current price levels, Turkish producers are still making a profit," an industry source said.