Consultation on amendment to proposal for new European low-carbon FeCr price assessment: pricing notice

The consultation, which will be open until Wednesday May 24, seeks to ensure that our methodologies continue to reflect the physical market under indexation, in compliance with the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for Price Reporting Agencies (PRAs). This includes all elements of our pricing process, our price specifications and publication frequency.

Fastmarkets originally invited feedback from the industry on the pricing methodology for low-carbon ferro-chrome in Europe, via an open consultation process, between November 28, 2022, and January 9, 2023, and then extended this to February 6, 2023.

After the end of the extended consultation, responses from the market suggested, among other things, that there was support for the possible introduction of a new price covering low-carbon ferro-chrome with lower chrome content.

Fastmarkets then introduced an assessed price range for ferro-chrome with 0.1% carbon content and chrome content of less than 65%, otherwise using the same methodology as the existing quotation, on a trial basis for a period of eight weeks. This ended on Tuesday April 25.

Following the end of that trial period on Tuesday, and based on feedback from the market, Fastmarkets believes that a chrome content of 60-64.9% would be more representative of the majority of reported liquidity than the originally proposed 58-64.9%.

All other terms and specifications would remain the same as in the original proposal.

Fastmarkets is now inviting feedback from the industry on the proposed adjustment, as set out below:

Ferro-chrome low carbon, 0.10% C, basis 60-64.9% Cr, CIF Europe, $ per lb Cr
Quality: Lump, Cr 60-64.9%, C 0.10%, Si 1.5% max, P 0.03% max, S 0.03% max
Quantity: Min 25 tonnes
Location: CIF Europe
Unit: USD per lb of chrome contained
Payment terms: 30 days, other payment terms normalized
Publication: Fortnightly, Tuesday, 2-3pm London time.

This four-week open consultation begins on Wednesday April 26 and will close on Wednesday May 24. We are also open to discussions on other possible changes to our European ferro-chrome prices.

To provide feedback on this consultation, or if you would like to provide price information by becoming a data submitter to this price, please contact Claire Patel-Campbell by email at pricing@fastmarkets.com. Please add the subject heading ‘FAO: Claire Patel-Campbell re low carbon ferro-chrome pricing.’

Please specify whether your response is confidential. Opinions offered in confidential responses may be referenced but will not be attributed in any way.

Fastmarkets will publish the outcome of this consultation by Wednesday May 31, including a summary of the feedback – with the exception of those responses marked as confidential.

To see all Fastmarkets pricing methodology and specification documents, go to: https://www.fastmarkets.com/methodology.