With the increase in the production of stainless steel enterprises, the enthusiasm for raw material procurement of steel mills has been driven, and the guidance prices of major steel mills have been announced since late August. At the beginning of the steel recruitment, the steel recruitment guide price of a steel mill in East China was as high as 9,750 yuan /50 base tons, but the subsequent Qingshan Steel recruitment was only 8,995 yuan /50 base tons, and TiSCO Steel recruitment was only 8,795 yuan /50 base tons. Guiding steel is less than expected, the market price has followed the downward trend, in mid-September, the price of high-carbon Inner Mongolia fell to 9000 yuan /50 base tons, down 200 yuan /50 base tons from the end of August, a decline of 2.17%.

Due to the insufficient chromium ore reserves in China, the supply of chromium ore mainly comes from overseas imports, and the external dependence of chromium ore in China exceeds 80%, and the continuous increase of imports puts pressure on the market. General Administration of Customs data show that in July 2023 domestic chromium ore imports in 1,668,700 tons, an increase of 10.77% from the previous month, an increase of 39.07% last year, chromium ore imports have been more than 1.5 million tons for three consecutive months, causing great concern in the market. At the same time, the domestic chrome ore imports from January to July 2023 were 9,923,900 tons, an increase of 1,025,200 tons over the same period last year, an increase of 11.52%. As shown in Figure 2, chromium ore imports began to surge in the second quarter, it is difficult for cargo holders to support the price, and the weak adjustment of chromium ore prices has triggered a bearish market sentiment, so it is more difficult for the price of chromium iron to rise.

From January to July 2023, the domestic production of high-carbon was 3.99 million tons, a decrease of 30,000 tons compared with the same period last year, and the reduction was only 0.75%. Among the eight major producing areas, only Inner Mongolia increased its production significantly. From January to July 2023, the production of high-carbon ferrochrome in Inner Mongolia was close to 2.5 million tons, an increase of more than 20% compared with the same period last year. The output in other areas has different degrees of weak adjustment. Raw material purchase production rhythm unchanged, the final manufacturers of raw material inventory increased, which led to the iron factory shipment mentality changed, the enthusiasm for the price is exhausted, chromite prices continue to pressure.