Intensified investigation against the roundabout trade by the Chinese customs since March is causing problems on deliveries of some contracted cargoes. There are two possibilities on how the situation develops, i.e. the shippers (i) hold off until the scrutiny subsides, or (ii) manage to find other ways to essentially continue the trade. As a matter of fact however, in July/August last year, the customs launched a crackdown on the illegal trade without effective results until autumn and it faded away, so it is hard to tell what will happen with the roundabout trade at this moment. One thing that is certain is that there are several trading firms who have been put short of manganese metal caused by delays of arrival of those cargoes earmarked to customers.

Demand recovery has been slow in China, as China's crude steel production has been basically unchanged, keeping ferrosilicon's production capacity utilization rate at 50 - 60% since the Chinese New Year. Reflecting the stagnated market, ferrosilicon's price for export from China is unchanged at US$1,420 - 1,430/ton CIF, while some spot tonnage is available at US$1,380/ton CIF, but as a whole there seems no sign of price pick-up in the near future. Market is rather watching how things will develop with the strengthened investigation by the Chinese customs.