欧洲铬铁价格小幅上涨，主要由不锈钢价格推动

欧洲铬铁现货价格受益于不锈钢好转。铬铁现货价格略有上升，在过去的几个星期，一些生产商已经宣布由于不锈钢销售好转重新启动高碳铬铁的生产。

European FeCr spot prices benefit from stainless upturn 
Ferrochrome spot prices have risen slightly in the last couple of weeks, and several producers have announced production restarts as demand picks up due to the upturn in stainless steel sales.

The spot price for high carbon FeCr is around $0.95 cents per pound cif Rotterdam (€0.66/lb) and $1.95/lb cif for low carbon material, a trader tells Steel Business Briefing. This is only a slight improvement from last month’s prices of 0.85c/lb cif for HC and $1.80/lb cif for LC.

Demand for FeCr is expected to increase in the fourth quarter,but meeting this may be difficult, as 90% of production was idled last year and not all has returned to market. Despite recent announcements by Albanian Chrome, Merafe and International Ferro Metals (IFM), that they will restart idled production over the coming weeks, stock levels remain extremely low, another trader says.

Last month IFM said that FeCr demand had “increased noticeably” during July as a result of economic stimulus programmes in China and low stocks. It added that the short-term outlook for FeCr looked good and noted the rising spot prices.

While prices for ferro-molybdenum and ferro-vanadium are still increasing, another trader’s view is that FeCr prices appear to have “backed off” from rising further. He says he expects "a kick in demand” in Q4, though is unsure whether this will occur at the beginning or end of the quarter. He adds that the LC ferrochrome spot price could then go up over $2/lb, while and HC material would be around $1/lb.