TEX reported that International Ferro Metals South Africa Pty Limited, a middle class producer of ferrochrome in South Africa, has recently appointed Tokyo Boeki Steel & Materials Limited as the agent in Japan for sales of ferrochrome produced by IFM and this agent has been already working on the sales.

IFM has held the capacity to produce 264,000 tonnes per annum of charge chrome at the Buffelsfontein plant and has also planned to expand this capacity.

IFM is a JV company between Jiuqan Iron & Steel, a stainless steel company of China, and financiers of South Africa, and a 40% of charge chrome produced by IFM has been stipulated to be taken by Chinese side. In addition, a 20% of the output will be received by COMETAl of the USA.

The agent in Japan for IFM was so far not determined but, in consequence of that Tokyo Boeki Steel & Materials has been appointed by IFM as the agent in Japan, the agents in Japan for sales of ferrochrome produced by all of South African companies has come out fully.

For a reference, the channels for sales of South African ferrochrome in Japan are
Xstrata - Glencore
ASA Metals - Marubeni Tetsugen Co
Assmang - Sumitomo Corp
Samancor Chrome - Hanwa Co
Hernic Ferrochrome - Mitsubishi Corp
IFM - Tokyo Boeki Steel & Materials Ltd

In addition, Samancor has established a subsidiary company as a JV with a Japanese enterprise for output of ferrochrome in South Africa and has ensured the channels for sales of ferrochrome in Japan through this subsidiary company. There are two routes of NST Ferrochrome - Nippon Denko and Crometals - Nisshin Steel: Sojitz Corporation

(Sourced from TEX Report Limited)