JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Rustenburg-based emerging low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome beneficiator FerroChrome Furnaces (FCF) on Wednesday said a Dubai-based Russian businessperson Alibek Issaev had secured a 50% stake in the company.
FCF believed the deal, revealed at a press conference in Sandton on Wednesday, would fast-track its ambition to become a significant exporter of low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome within the next three to four years.
The transaction, struck between Issaev and South African businessperson Abbas Moti, was expected to double production at FCF’s planned beneficiation smelter facility, in Rustenburg, over the next three years, said FCF director Ashruf Kaka.
FCF said it would ramp up production to 300 000 t/y, in two phases, by December 2014. Further capital injection would allow the plant to reach 420 000 t/y by the end of 2016.
“We aim to corner the low- and medium-carbon ferrochrome supply markets during the next two to three years and if that means a price war to achieve market share, we are ready to do battle and we have the resources to do so,” Issaev said.
The parties would not be drawn on the potential pricing structure of its resources or the cost of the expansive project and investment.
FCF, which had no intention of listing on any stock exchange, said it had secured exclusive supply chain agreements with Germany-based Metal Partner and an undisclosed Dubai-based agency for the distribution of the product throughout the world.
Key export markets for the company included the Far East, the US and Europe.