The sharp declines in the European ferro-vanadium market have paused with prices only moving down slightly last week. Meanwhile, the Chinese ferro-vanadium export market stabilized on firm offers.
- Chinese ferro-vanadium export prices stable on firm offers
- European ferro-vanadium price edges down, finds resistance
- European V2O5 price falls sharply on low demand, Chinese price unchanged
- US ferro-vanadium price finds temporary stability amid inactivity
The export price for ferro-vanadium in China remained unchanged in the week ended Friday April 26. Chinese exporters held their offers firm despite subdued buying interest from abroad.
Fastmarkets assessed the export price for ferro-vanadium, min 78%, fob China, at $50-54 per kg on April 25, unchanged for a second consecutive week.
Chinese ferro-vanadium exporters were unwilling to lower their offers further last week despite limited buying interest seen from the international market, market sources told Fastmarkets.
“This is because Chinese exporters realized that even if they cut their prices a step further, it is still impossible to promote a deal in the export market because the price spread between the Chinese and European markets is too wide now. A more favorable domestic price also lured them to seek a chance to sell domestically,” one market participant said.
Currently, the price spread between the Chinese and European markets has widened to around $8.50-11 per kg, according to Fastmarkets data.
The domestic ferro-vanadium market, however, saw a slight softening last week despite the relative stability in the vanadium nitrogen, another ferro-alloy product containing vanadium.
Vanadium nitrogen alloy has also enjoyed some popularity among Chinese steel mills in the rebar-making process, Fastmarkets understands.
“I think it’s reasonable to see the domestic [ferro-vanadium] price dip a bit because the price of ferro-vanadium was much higher than that of vanadium nitrogen previously,” a Chinese market source said. “It’s time for a correction now.”
