- Market faces mounting supply pressure as imports rise
- Weaker alloy consumption widens supply-demand imbalance
China’s imports of manganese ore increased again in July, with the total tonnage rising by 70,077 tonnes or 2.3% on month to reach 3.09 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC) on 20 August.
The volume of manganese ore delivered from major overseas mines to China remained high last month, as the results indicate, causing port inventories to swell and exerting pressure on domestic manganese ore prices.
Mysteel’s survey showed that by the end of July, the total tonnage of manganese ore stocked at China’s major ports under its tracking had reached 5.78 million tonnes. This was higher by 3.4% from late June though the total had eased by 2.4% compared with the 19-month high recorded in early July.
Meanwhile, domestic manganese ore prices lost further ground last month amid the abundant supply. On 31 July, Mysteel assessed the price of South Africa-origin 36.5% grade manganese ore at North China’s Tianjin port at RMB 33.7/dmtu ($5.4/dmtu) including the 13% VAT, dropping by RMB 3.1/dmtu on month.
Meanwhile, the persistent weakness in silicomanganese (SiMn) prices and shrinking demand from alloy smelters also impacted the spot prices of this ore, Mysteel Global noted.
On 31 July, Mysteel assessed the spot price of 6517 SiMn at RMB 5,591 /t including the 13% VAT, down by RMB 22/t from the end of June.
Many domestic SiMn smelters have cut their alloy output to ease the market pressure from supply side, so their consumption for manganese ore has declined accordingly.
Mysteel’s other survey showed that during July, daily SiMn output among the sampled 187 smelters nationwide averaged 24,655 tonnes/day, lower by 1,825 t/d or 6.9% from the average for June. The sampled smelters host 99% of China’s SiMn smelting capacity.
For the first seven months of this year, China imported 20.6 million tonnes of manganese ore, jumping by 3.4 million tonnes or 19.8% from the same period of last year, the GACC statistics showed.
Note: This article has been published in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.
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