Chrome Ore (Chromite Lumpy & Concentrate)

Chromite lumpy, chips and concentrate by Cr₂O₃, Cr:Fe ratio and silica

Chrome ore is bought on two numbers before any other: Cr₂O₃ content and the chromium-to-iron ratio. Cr₂O₃ runs from 38–40% in South African UG2 and metallurgical-grade fines up to 46–48% in Turkish and Kazakh lumpy ore, and the price per tonne moves with it, but the Cr:Fe ratio decides what the ore is worth to a smelter, because it fixes the chromium grade of the ferrochrome the furnace will make. A 1.5:1 ore yields charge chrome at 50–52% Cr; a 2.5–3:1 Turkish or Pakistani lumpy ore yields 60%+ high-carbon ferrochrome and sells at a premium per unit of Cr₂O₃ for it. Silica (≤ 6–10%), alumina, MgO and phosphorus set slag chemistry and furnace resistivity; moisture (≤ 5–8%) is weight paid for and water boiled off; and size is a price step in its own right — lumpy 10–150 mm goes straight into the furnace, chips 3–10 mm and concentrate or fines −3 mm need pelletising or sintering first, which is why fines trade at a discount and lumpy at a premium for the same chemistry. UN Comtrade 2025 export declarations under HS 2610 put South Africa at 23.79 million MT at an average USD 220/MT, an order of magnitude above every other reporter; Pakistan follows at 378,000 MT at USD 280, Oman at 307,000 MT at USD 134 (a low-grade, low-ratio ore that trades on volume), Kazakhstan at 172,000 MT at USD 396 for high-grade lumpy, and India at 2,100 MT at USD 425. Turkiye, the other significant lumpy exporter, does not appear in our 2025 scan row, so its figure is read from the Chinese import side rather than quoted here.

The buyer is a ferrochrome smelter, and the seaborne trade is dominated by Chinese furnaces — Inner Mongolia and Sichuan — buying South African fines and concentrate for pelletised charge chrome, with Indian, Indonesian and Turkish smelters taking the lumpy and higher-ratio grades. Each furnace buys against its own burden mix: a smelter running South African fines wants a cheap, consistent 40–42% Cr₂O₃ at 1.5:1 and a low-silica lumpy to blend in for permeability; a smelter making high-carbon ferrochrome for a stainless mill wants 2.5:1 or better and pays for it. That is the enquiry we work rather than a single-origin sheet. CBIL is a commodity brokerage company and brokers chromite lumpy, chips and concentrate from South African, Turkish, Pakistani, Omani and Kazakh mine and trader allocations against SGS or Bureau Veritas certification of Cr₂O₃, Cr:Fe, SiO₂, Al₂O₃, MgO, P, moisture and size distribution on a dry basis. Parcels are structured in Handysize and Supramax lots on FOB and CFR terms out of Richards Bay, Maputo, Karachi and Sohar, with containerised jumbo bags for Turkish and Pakistani lumpy where the tonnage is under a vessel lot; because CBIL also runs a chartering desk (LaycanDesk), freight is quoted alongside the cargo so the CFR and FOB numbers are comparable on the same day. Send your Cr₂O₃ floor, the Cr:Fe ratio your furnace needs and whether you can take fines, and we will work the origin to it.

Need the ship as well? Our chartering desk prices bulk ore freight on LaycanDesk.