China: Manganese ore prices remain stable, sales slow

• Spot manganese ore demand weakens post restocking
• Sellers refuse to reduce offers due to high import costs

Mysteel: China’s manganese ore prices remained stable during 21-27 January, with South Africa-origin 36.5% grade manganese ore at North China’s Tianjin port under Mysteel’s assessment staying at RMB 36.2/dmtu ($5.2/dmtu) including the 13% VAT on 27 January, the same level as one week earlier.

Spot transactions of manganese ore in China have slowed recently, as many downstream alloy smelters have completed their restocking of this feed ore, Mysteel Global learnt.

Manganese ore inventories piled at China’s major ports increased slightly in the past week, with the total tonnage at the ports monitored by Mysteel standing at 4.25 million tonnes (mnt) on 22 January, rising w-o-w for the second week by 30,000 tonnes (t).

Besides, China’s silico manganese (SiMn) prices in the physical market remained weak, while futures firmed up. As such, most traders opted to hold their offers of manganese ore to monitor market changes in the near term.

As of 27 January, the national price of 65-17 silico manganese was assessed by Mysteel at RMB 5,643/t, including 13% VAT, slipping by RMB 14/t from one week before.

On the same day, the most-traded silico manganese contract on the Zhengzhou Futures Exchange for delivery in March closed the daytime trading session at RMB 5,818/t, higher by RMB 18/t from the settlement price on 20 January, according to the exchange’s data.

Domestic manganese ore traders refused to make more concessions in their offers also because of their high-level import costs, given firm offers tabled by major overseas mines. In addition, most Chinese smelters maintained stable alloy production, suggesting steady consumption of manganese ore, Mysteel Global noted.

The combined daily production of silico manganese among the 187 Chinese smelters under Mysteel’s tracking averaged 27,605 t/day over 16-22 January, edging up by 80 t/d from the previous week. The 187 sampled smelters host about 99% of China’s silico manganese smelting capacity.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.