According to the Association of Ukrainian Ferroalloy Producers, Ukraine ferroalloy industry has started to see signs of recovery as in August after a sustained period of decline, the world ferroalloys market has registered its first signs of improvement, with average prices in Europe unexpectedly rising by more than EUR 100 per tonne from July level to EUR 880 per tonne to EUR 890 per tonne.
The UkrFA notes that Ukrainian ferroalloys producers have hardly any metal inventories in their warehouses and despite working at maximum allowable capacity are unable to keep up with all orders. According to the UkrFA one Ukrainian ferroalloy producer, the name of which has not been disclosed has a full order book for September and will sell silicomanganese for EUR 850 per tonne in October and will probably use that price as the benchmark for the whole fourth quarter.
According to data issued for the first seven months of 2009, Ukraine registered a decrease of 58% YoY in its ferroalloys production to 436,800 tonnes.
In January to July 2009, Ukraine silicomanganese output decreased by 52.5% YoY to 313,400 tonnes, its ferromanganese production went down by 82.8% YoY to 47,800 tonne, its ferrosilicon output dropped by 30% YoY to 67,800 tonnes while its metallic manganese production increased by 85.7% YoY to 7,200 tonne all compared to the same period of last year. (SteelOrbis)