LIQUIDITY RETURNS
Tharisa upbeat as chrome market stabilises
Tharisa produces chrome concentrate and platinum-group metals from a mechanised open-pit mine near Rustenburg
Metallurgical-grade chrome prices were stabilising after a sharp decline to an average $147 a tonne in the June quarter, from $338 a tonne in the March quarter, Tharisa CEO Phoevos Pouroulis said on Monday. Tharisa, whose major shareholders are the Pouroulis family, produces chrome concentrate and platinum-group metals (PGMs) from a mechanised open-pit mine near Rustenburg. SA owns the world’s largest resources of chrome ore, the price of which dropped 40% in a single day in early May on rising Chinese inventories. TharisaIn the May Ferrochrome report, Core Consultants MD Lara Smith forecast that prices were unlikely to recover until stocks fell below about 1.6-million tonnes, which might not happen until the fourth quarter of 2017 or later. At the end of May, total chrome-ore stocks at Durban and Richards Bay had increased to 600,000 tonnes after a number of orders, especially from China, were cancelled. SA exported almost 900,000 tonnes in March. Pouroulis said in Tharisa’s third-...
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