Ferrochrome demand is up but South Africa is now eclipsed in a market it once led

The global demand for ferrochrome, which South Africa once provided overwhelmingly to the world to back 200 000 local jobs, was higher in the six months to June 30, the period in which this country’s ferrochrome production fell still further as more smelters were idled. Ferrochrome is a five-times multiplier of raw chrome ore value but South Africa is increasingly switching to the exportation of much lower valued raw chrome ore, which provides its global ferrochrome competitors with increasingly greater opportunity to benefit from the fivefold value-add that it is pivoting away from.