Global bulk steel alloys short-term outlook January 2024

The Red Sea shipping blockade has had a significant impact on numerous bulk steel alloy markets over the past two months. It has raised alloy prices in Europe and in some cases North America too. Also it has helped restore a price premium for Turkish chromium ore over South African primary concentrate. Prices in China generally remain flat, which is more indicative of real market fundamentals. We expect some degree of price decline in western markets in the near term as logistics costs normalise. In the silicon sector, the full extent of the massive expansion of China’s polysilicon output in 2023 is now visible. The high-purity manganese sulphate market is similarly oversupplied due to over-expansion.