The dynamics of ferroalloys commodity flows within Russia

Abstract

The paper deals with the commodity flows (production, import, export, consumption, prices) of manganese, chromium, silicon, vanadium, niobium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and nickel ferroalloys in dynamics from 2000 to 2019 throughout Russia. The paper also specifies groups of ferroalloys: import-dependent (silicomanganese, metallic manganese, ferroniobium), export-oriented (ferrosilicon, ferrochrome, ferrovanadium, ferromolybdenum) and counter import-export (ferromanganese) flows. The paper notes that there has been a liquidation of import dependence on ferromanganese and ferromolybdenum. Trends in shares of Russian ferroalloys in their world production and consumption, as well as in the world trade are determined. The share of Russia in the world production of ferromolybdenum increased (up to 5-8 %), while ferrovanadium and ferrosilicon decreased. The shares of Russian consumption (in world demand volume) of ferrovanadium (up to 11-7 %) and ferroniobium (up to 5-7 %) increased, and the shares of national demand for ferrosilicon and silicomanganese in the volume of world supply decreased. The shares of Russian import in the world trade volume of metallic manganese (up to 11-16 %) and ferroniobium (up to 5 %) are increased, and the share of national imports of silicomanganese and ferromanganese decreased. The shares of Russian export in the world trade volume of ferrosilicon (up to 17-21 %) and ferromolybdenum (up to 5-8 %) are increased, while the share of national exports of ferrovanadium decreased. As a result, the authors give proposals to mitigate the import dependence on certain types of ferroalloys (metallic manganese, silicomanganese and ferroniobium.