Attributable ferrochrome production from the Glencore-Merafe chrome venture increased by 28% for the quarter ended March 31, buoyed by a stronger market, the impact of State-owned power utility Eskom’s nonrecurring buyback agreements and a “good” performance by the venture’s furnaces.

JSE-listed Merafe Resources reported in a quarterly report on Wednesday that the Rustenburg smelter, in the North West, continued to operate efficiently owing to the positive impact of the Tswelopele pelletising and sintering plant.

This drove the venture’s operating capacity use for the first quarter to 95% from 74% for the first quarter of the prior comparable year and boosted attributable ferrochrome production from 67 000 t in the prior first quarter to 86 000 t for the three months under review.

Similarly, ferrochrome sales volumes for the first quarter of 2014 increased by 9%, increasing from 76 000 t in the first three months of 2013 to 83 000 t in the first quarter of this year.

The venture further benefitted from rallying ferrochrome prices, which increased from $1.12/lb to $1.18/lb over the period.

The European benchmark ferrochrome price for the second quarter of 2014 had been settled at $1.22/lb.

The producer added that the ongoing strike in the platinum industry had resulted in reduced upper-group-two (UG2) production and higher chrome ore input costs at the venture’s furnaces in the first quarter of the year, as a consequence of a higher percentage of own-mined ore compared with UG2.

Merafe added that production from the first furnace of the venture’s R5-billion Lion II project had started on April 6, with production at the plant to ramp up gradually and the smelter envisaged to be fully operational towards the middle of the year.

• [Editor:Juan]