BEIJING (Asian Metal) 22 Jan 21 - Fujian Liande Enterprise Co., Ltd., one of the main producers of ferronickel 10%min in South China, will reduce its ferronickel output by about 4,000t MOM in January due to production line maintenance, a source of the company told Asia Metal.

"At the end of December, we carried out the annual routine maintenance of a production line, and the output of ferronickel 10%min in January will drop to about 11,000t," the source said, revealing that although the price of ferronickel rises this week, downstream consumers still maintain normal purchases. And the company expects that the price of ferronickel 10%min would continue to rise by RMB20/mtu (USD3.09/mtu) in the coming week.

The plant purchases Philippine imported lateritic nickel ore to produce ferronickel 10%min. With an annual production capacity of 288,000t of ferronickel, it has four ferronickel production lines in total. It produced totally about 250,000t in 2019 and about 180,000t in 2020. He expects to produce 11,000t in January, while he produced about 15,000t last month. He holds no stocks now.

Mainstream prices for ferronickel 10%min in Chinese market stand at RMB1,100-1,120/mtu (USD170-173/mtu) at present, up by RMB10/mtu (USD1.55/mtu) from late last week.