Chromite Ores General Information

Chromium was first discovered as a metal in the 17th century, but it was only in the 18th century before it was used commercially.

In the 20th century, the use of chromium exploded due to the industrialization and surge in demand for stainless steel. Chromium usage can be divided into 3 categories:

Metallurgy : 90%
Chemical : 5%
Refractory and Foundry : 5%

Chromite ores are converted into ferro chrome through smelting with carbon or silicon. Metallurgical ferro chrome major usage is the production of stainless steel.

Chromium biggest benefit in the metallurgy ferro chrome usage is its corrosion resistance, hardness, strength and bright furnish. These benefits allows ferro chrome to be used in the production of stainless steels, and heat resistant steel. In the production of stainless steel, the use of ferro chrome has no substitute, so as long as stainless steels are being produced worldwide, the demand for chromite ores will exist. Up to 25% of the weight of stainless steel is ferro chrome.

South Africa is the largest producer of chromite ores, where over 70% of world chromite ore reserves are believed to be located. Today South Africa supplies approximately 50% of world's supplies of chromite ores.

Other countries playing a significant role in the supply of chromite ores are Kazakhstan, India, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Russia, Brazil, Finland, Australia, Iran and Oman. The total worldwide production of chromite ore is approximately 20 million metric tons per year.

CHINA MARKET FOR CHROMITE ORES

China is the major consumer of chromite ores produced world wide. The majority of chromite ores imported into China over the last decade have been from South Africa, Kazakhstan and India.

India recently has made exporting of chromite ores to China more difficult by imposing a tax of almost 40%. The raising demand for stainless steel and the rapid expansion of stainless steel industry in China is creating a worldwide shortage of Chromite Ores. This allows new suppliers from different parts of the world become new player in the Chinese chromite market. One of these new players is Oman.

In December 2007, China imported 460,000 MT of Chromite ores valued at US$135 million. From January to Dec 2007, China imported a total of over 6 million MT of Chromite Ores valued at US$1.6 billion. This represented an increase of over 40% in terms of quantity imported and an increase of 110% in terms of dollar value. This showed that the price of chromite ores are increasing at a rate of 3 times as fast as the volume increase.

South Africa, the largest supplier of chromite's into China, fills 16% of China chromite ore consumption. The rest of the chromite ores imported into China are from India, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Albania, Vietnam, Philippines and Oman.

HATTON FZE CHROMITE ORES

Hatton FZE chromite ores are from the Sultanate of Oman. Oman is a relatively new supplier of chromite ores to the world's market. The quality of chromite ores in Oman are primarily the 35% Cr2O3 types. Higher grades in the 45% Cr2O3 are also available, but in limited quantity. Click here to see Chromite Ore specifications.

Hatton FZE operates one of the largest chromite quarry in Somail area, south of Muscat, Oman. The chromite ores are of various grades and ranges from 30% to 42%. The production capacity is 2,000 MT per day or 40,000 MT per month or 480,000 MT per year. Since Oman is a desert and almost never rains, production can continue year round. Click here to see our Chromite Ore mines.

Chromite ores from Oman has the lowest market price as compared to Chromite ores from other countries because the production cost is very low.