Chrome concentrate is the largest single line on our desk. We place South African 40 to 42% Cr₂O₃ material out of the Eastern and Western Bushveld, and Zimbabwean 46 to 48% material off the Great Dyke, into ferrochrome smelters and stainless steel supply chains in Asia and Europe.
Two distinct products sit under the same heading, and buyers should not treat them as interchangeable. South African concentrate is a high-volume, moderate-grade product: 40 to 42% Cr₂O₃, milled to a 0 to 1mm concentrate, produced by wash plants clustered around Steelpoort in the Eastern Limb and Rustenburg, Brits and Mooinooi in the Western Limb. It is the workhorse feed for ferrochrome furnaces that are optimised for it.
Zimbabwean concentrate off the Great Dyke runs 46 to 48% Cr₂O₃ with a materially better chrome to iron ratio. It commands a premium and is bought by smelters chasing a higher chrome unit per tonne of feed, or blending up a low-grade stockpile. Volumes are thinner and logistics are longer, so it trades differently.
| Grades | 40 to 42% Cr₂O₃ (South Africa); 46 to 48% Cr₂O₃ (Zimbabwe) |
|---|---|
| Sizing | 0 to 1mm concentrate |
| Origins | Steelpoort, Rustenburg, Brits, Mooinooi, Boshoek; Great Dyke, Zimbabwe |
| Moisture | Declared on assay, typically 6 to 9% as loaded |
| Assay | SGS or Intertek, at loading and again on discharge where required |
| Terms | FOT wash plant, DAP inland, FCA origin, FOB Richards Bay, Maputo, Beira or Durban |
| Volumes | Trial parcels from 500 MT; running contracts to 10,000 MT per month |
| Pricing | On application, referenced to prevailing index and reviewed on an agreed cycle |
Most chrome business is not a single cargo. It is a trial parcel that proves the grade and the logistics, followed by a running offtake with a price review every two weeks or every month. We paper it that way deliberately, because a fixed price over a twenty four month term is not a contract either side will honour when the index moves.
Grade premiums are set out explicitly rather than left to negotiation on arrival. A typical structure prices the base at 40 to 42% and adds a fixed premium per tonne above 42.00% and a further step above 43.00%, determined on the delivery assay. That removes the single largest source of dispute in chrome trading.
Payment security is a drawdownable escrow, sized to roughly two weeks of offtake and revolving, with the seller drawing the bulk against delivery documents and the balance released after testing. We do not accept an instrument that blocks seller drawdown in place of that.
South African concentrate moves by road from the wash plant to an inland delivery point such as City Deep in Johannesburg, or to a port for export. Zimbabwean material clears through Beitbridge or Chirundu and routes to Beira, Maputo or Durban depending on availability and the buyer's vessel programme. We quote the leg the buyer wants and no further, so the price is readable.
If you produce or hold this material and you do not have a reliable route to a buyer, this is the side of the desk you want. Below is who we place it with and what we will need to know.
Ferrochrome smelters and stainless steel supply chains
China, India, Turkey, and inland South African smelters buying delivered
500 MT trial parcels through to running offtakes of 10,000 MT per month
You do not need all of this to make first contact. Rough figures are enough to get an answer.
Smelters buy on grade and chrome to iron ratio, and they buy repeatedly. A producer who can hold a consistent 40 to 42% Cr₂O₃ and deliver every week is worth more to this book than one with a single large stockpile.
The percentage is the Cr₂O₃ content by mass. South African Bushveld concentrate typically assays 40 to 42% Cr₂O₃, while Zimbabwean Great Dyke material reaches 46 to 48% with a higher chrome to iron ratio. Higher grade means more chrome units per tonne of furnace feed, so it carries a premium, but South African material remains the volume product for smelters configured around it.
Trial parcels start at 500 MT. Running contracts typically ramp from 1,000 MT in the first week to 2,500 MT per week, scaling by agreement toward 10,000 MT per month.
Richards Bay and Durban in South Africa, and Maputo in Mozambique. Zimbabwean material also routes through Beira. Inland delivered business is commonly done DAP City Deep, Johannesburg.
By SGS or Intertek at the loading point, with a second independent assay on discharge where the contract calls for it. Grade premiums and any penalty are settled on the delivery assay, not the loading assay, so the tested result governs.
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What a ferrochrome buyer needs before they will look at your material, why most producer offers are ignored, and how to get your position straight first.
Grade is only the headline. A chrome cargo settles on the premium schedule, the review cycle, the moisture basis and where the assay is taken.
LME Grade A equivalent copper cathode and blister out of the Central African Copperbelt, routed through Dar es Salaam, Beira and Durban.
South African RB1, RB2 and RB3 thermal coal at 5,500 to 6,000 kcal/kg NAR, FOB Richards Bay and Maputo, priced against API4.
Kalahari Manganese Field ore at 36 to 44% Mn, lumpy and fines, delivered mine gate to FOB Coega and Port Elizabeth.
Send the grade, roughly how much you have and where it sits. You will know inside a trading day whether we have a buyer for it.