India’s manganese ore imports drop 20% y-o-y in H1 FY26

India’s manganese ore import volumes fell by 20% to 3.03 million tonnes (mnt) in April-September 2025 (H1FY26) against 3.76 mnt in H1FY25, as per provisional data with BigMint.

The downtrend in imports till date in the current fiscal points to a trend reversal: over FY21-FY25, the country’s manganese ore demand jumped by over 55% to 10.38 mnt from 6.66 mnt on steel capacity expansion, infrastructure push, and growth in manganese alloys production. However, the impact of shrinking margins and weak global demand on domestic alloys production effected the trend reversal in H1FY26.