Interesting article, it does cover the basics. OM Holdings is a...

Interesting article, it does cover the basics.
OM Holdings is a difficult company to cover and it takes considerably more digging to understand why the current situation exists. Looking at steel production is one thing but it doesn't explain the excess supply of FeMn, SiMn and FeSi.
Years ago making alloys was far more profitable than just making steel, this is one of the reasons that there are so many producers in China. Even with record steel production and iron ore imports into China there is still an oversupply of alloys. The Chinese Government introduced a 20% and 25% export tax to try and slow down the manufacture of alloys, partly due to the pollution situation.
Many of the Eastern European countries, ie Slovakia, Romania, Macedonia, Poland, Bosnia and the Ukraine were big producers helped by cheap power, cheap labour and a good market. The Nordic countries like Norway and Finland are big producers due to cheap hydro power. The situation is changing due to rising power prices, as I've previously mentioned I visited a number of alloy plants during my 4 months travelling through Eastern Europe last year, the huge alloy plants in Bosnia, Macedonia and Romania are closed. There aren't many left.

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There are not many ferro silicon smelters left operating in Europe now.
The ferrosilicon alloy members in Europe

• Elkem (Norway) Major player , 13th Feb is 4th Qtr results will be interesting.
• Ferroatlantica (Spain) CLOSED
• Fesil (Norway) Now owned by Elkem
• Finnfjord (Norway) 3 furnaces - production capacity of 100,000 tonnes of ferrosilicon
• Huta Laziska (Poland) CLOSED PERMANENTLY
• OFZ Istebne (Slovakia) TWO FURNACES CLOSED
• Ferropem (France) LAST FURNACE CLOSED Dec 2019
• Jugohrom (Macedonia) CLOSED PERMANENTLY
• Vargön Alloys (Sweden) Produces only ferrochrome
• B.S.I. d.o.o. Brune Busica (Jajce ( Bosnia-Herzegovina ) CLOSED

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