Indian alloy manufacturer Facor Alloys has announced the suspension of its ferrochrome plant in Andhra Pradesh from July 15 until further notice. Facor said plant operations were not viable due to high input costs and negative margins due to prevailing low market prices, and the sharp increase in electricity prices in Andhra Pradesh also increased its alloy smelting costs.
As India's largest ferrochrome producer, Facor has an annual capacity of 250KTPA chromium ore, 81.3KTPA ferrochrome (100MW power smelter), and India's total exports of ferrochrome in 2022 are 689,000 tons, of which 293,000 tons are exported to China.
Due to poor consumption in the global steel market in 2023, Indian ferrochrome suppliers are facing a severe lack of transactions. As a result, they had to lower their offers to attract buyers. Market participants said that the current price of ferrochrome has reached a critical level whether it can be profitable. According to foreign media reports, since March, foreign buyers for India's high-carbon ferrochrome offers have fallen by nearly 8%.
