Roskill has released its new chromium market report with forecasts out to 2026. It says there has been a slowdown in Chinese construction and the county’s economy is going through a period of transition, resulting in higher levels of per capita income shifting demand towards higher-value products and construction projects that typically involve more use of advanced steels. Roskill’s forecasts put stainless steel production growth at 4%/y to 2026 which means growing demand for chromite and ferrochrome.

However, as growth in China’s production and consumption of stainless steel has slowed, the country’s scrap ratio will most likely rise considerably over the next two decades, eventually reaching the 40-50% seen in the other main stainless-producing regions of the world. Such increases in this scrap ratio could have an adverse effect on chromite and ferrochrome demand. This and other supply-side trends have the potential to significantly alter the market over the coming years.

The picture shows Outokumpu’s Kemi chromite mine.