Russian producers have started to offer spot ferrosilicon cargoes on a regular basis to Japan, competing with Chinese producers for a larger market share, Tokyo trade sources said Friday.

Two Russian producers were heard offering 200-500 mt spot 75%-Si and 65%-Si ferrosilicon for shipment to Japan in June-July, Tokyo traders said.

The producers were selling to Japanese mills mostly on an annual or multi-annual contract basis, and had offered limited spot cargoes in the past.

 

Japanese traders said both producers had become more flexible to requests for small spot shipments since the beginning of this year. The Russian spot offers have been $20-40/mt higher than Chinese producers' offers. One trader said the higher spot offer levels were messages to the market that the Russian companies' focus was term contract sales.

This week, however, one Russian producer was heard offering to one Japanese trader $1,370-1,380/mt CIF Japan and to another at $1,400/mt CIF Japan, $20-40/mt lower than the Chinese spot offers. A second Russian producer was heard offering higher at $1,440/mt CIF Japan.

The Russian and Chinese offers were both for 75%-Si ferrosilicon, 200-500 mt lots for June-July shipment, trades said.

It has not been able to confirm with traders if deals were closed for the Russian supply. One deal was reported done at $1,420/mt CIF Japan for Chinese-origin ferrosilicon this week.

Japanese traders said the Russian supply will put downward pressure on the Chinese producers that currently dominate Japan's imports.

"There is a major buy tender next week for over 1,000 mt of ferrosilicon over the next four months. This may be why the Russian offers to Japanese traders are unusually competitive," one trader said.

Japan imported 143,213 mt of ferrosilicon from 16 countries over January-April: 81,445 mt from China and 22,035 mt from Russia.