EF Steel Mill Operating Rates Climb Further Amid Stable Profits

[SMM Steel] India’s Jindal Steel secured the Rengalaberha North-East Extension and Nuagan West iron ore block in Odisha through a state auction, offering a 111.15% premium over the base price. The mine is estimated to hold around 38 million tonnes of reserves, including about 29 mt of high-grade iron ore with Fe content near 60%, while the overall average grade is 57.87% Fe.

[Spot Silicon Metal Prices Probe Higher as Market Transactions Remain Stagnant; Polysilicon Price Trend Declines]: On the supply side, production release from silicon metal capacity that resumed production in early March increased total silicon metal supply compared with early March. Recently, there have been scattered production resumptions in Southwest China, but these have not yet become widespread, so their impact on supply growth has been very limited. On the cost side, spot prices of silicon coal and electrodes have remained temporarily stable recently, while petroleum coke prices rose slightly. Coupled with higher gasoline prices, road transport freight rates were raised slightly, providing relatively strong cost support for silicon metal. On the demand side, performance has mainly remained stable recently. During the week, spot silicon metal transactions were stagnant, inventory in the intermediate segment stayed at a high level, and downstream demand was weak, so silicon metal prices had limited room to rise or fall and were mainly range-bound in consolidation.

[SMM Daily HRC Trading Volume] On March 12, the total daily HRC trading volume of sample enterprises in SMM’s four cities (Shanghai, Lecong, Tianjin, Ningbo) was 15,950 mt, up 660 mt, or 4.3% MoM day on day, with Gregorian-calendar YoY down 4.95% and lunar-calendar YoY up 9.25%.