GLOBAL VANADIUM WRAP: European, Chinese ferro-Vanadium Prices Fall Again; V2O5 prices follow
Ferro-vanadium prices in China and Europe continued to fall in the week ended Friday April 15, with vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) prices following the downtrend.
- Chinese ferro-vanadium price continues to fall amid subdued demand
- European ferro-vanadium market down again on aggressive offers
- Chinese, European V2O5 prices follow downtrend
- US ferro-vanadium price falls more than 13%
The export price for ferro-vanadium in China continued its downward trend for the sixth consecutive week in the latest assessment period ended Thursday April 11.
Fastmarkets’ assessment for the export price for ferro-vanadium, min 78%, fob China, stood at $50-54 per kg on April 11, down by 7.6% from $54-58.50 per kg in the prior week and down by 24.1% from $67-70 per kg a year ago.
The price has recorded a drop of 30.2% since March 7, when it was assessed at $73-76 per kg, with weakness setting in after the week-long Chinese New Year (February 4-10). The price is down by 61.5% from an all-time high of $130-140 per kg on October 18, 2018.
Despite several inquiries received from abroad last week, many Chinese ferro-vanadium producers refrained from offering after realizing that it is hard to achieve a deal in the export market due to the significant price difference between the Chinese domestic market and the international market.
“We could feel some buying interest [for ferro-vanadium] coming back from abroad as we received some overseas inquiries this week. But we refused to offer because we knew that buyers would unlikely accept our offers amid a lower international price,” a Chinese ferro-vanadium exporter said.
“It’s impossible for us to lower our price to the level in the international market because of our relatively high production costs; in this case, we would rather not offer at all,” the exporter added.
Most Chinese ferro-vanadium exporters spoken to by Fastmarkets last week were unwilling to accept a price below $50 per kg.
That said, these exporters have lowered their expectations for tradable price in the export market on the continuous price softening in both the domestic and the international markets, Fastmarkets understands.
