NEW YORK — Low-carbon ferrochrome prices continue to rise, with producers unwilling to sell at lower levels over the past few weeks.

"The big players out there aren’t offering anything below $2.30 (per pound)," one trader said.

Prices for 0.10-percent material have risen to $2.20 to $2.25 per pound from $2.18 to $2.23 previously. Truckloads of business have been reported at the higher end of the range this past week.

Prices for 0.05-percent material have been swept along in the process, rising to $2.38 to $2.42 per pound from $2.35 and $2.40 per pound.

"I’ve heard of people looking for hundreds of tons (of 0.05-percent material)," a second trader said, adding that this was surprising in what is a fairly small U.S. market. "(It) seems to be really going up."

While led by a producer push, the rise is also due to solid demand from specialty metals producers, who are among the biggest users of low-carbon ferrochrome.

"We’ve seen no slowdown from the specialty guys," the first trader said, comparing it with a recent pullback from stainless steel producers.

"Stainless is going backwards. We were expecting this in June, so we’re two months ahead of schedule," the second trader agreed.