Ferroalloys Production Costs

Ferroalloys are mainly produced in electric furnaces, which consume high power and require abundant and inexpensive power resources. The production of ferroalloys is a highly energy-intensive process, and energy accounts for a large proportion of the cost structure of ferroalloys. France became a major producer of early ferroalloys. In the 1980s and 1990s, Norway became the largest exporter of ferroalloys, based on the rich local hydropower resources. In terms of manganese, chromium and silicon, the main varieties of ferroalloys, in addition to the abundant domestic resources and low prices of silica, manganese ore requires about one-third of manganese ore to be imported due to low domestic grade, high mining cost and reserves. Manganese alloy production costs account for a large proportion; China's chrome ore resources are extremely scarce, basically relying on imports, and chrome ore accounts for a large proportion of the ferrochrome cost structure.

ferroalloy production


The production cost of ferromanganese is mainly composed of the purchase cost of manganese ore, electricity and coke. The cost of manganese ore is about 60%, the electricity cost is about 20%-25%, and the coke cost is about 10%-15%. In addition, many companies in the production of ferromanganese alloy, in addition to the use of domestic low-phosphorus, low-iron, low-sulfur, low-silicon manganese ore, in order to improve the quality of raw materials into the furnace, increase manganese recovery, reduce power consumption and production The cost needs to be smelted after the purchase of some imported ore and domestic mines. Therefore, the fluctuation of manganese ore price, electricity cost and coke price has a great impact on the production of ferromanganese. Similar to ferromanganese, chrome ore also accounts for a large proportion of the production cost of ferrochrome. China's chrome ore resources are scarce. In 2013, the consumption of chrome ore was nearly 14 million tons, and the domestic supply was only about 2 million tons. The rest were solved by imports. China's ferrochrome production costs account for about 60% of chrome ore costs, electricity costs about 25% to 30%, and coke costs about 10% to 15%.

Due to the low price of silica, energy consumption accounts for the largest proportion of ferrosilicon production. Production of one ton of ferrosilicon raw materials and electrical energy consumption: silica 1780-1850 kg, coke 390-530 kg, scrap 220-230 kg, electrode paste 15-25 kg, power consumption 8400-9000kWh / t. In the cost of ferrosilicon, electricity accounts for about 70%.