Prices of manganese ore imported into India have increased by around 3% week-on-week (w-o-w), after around four weeks of price cuts, owing to better demand from the Chinese market.
Meanwhile, Indian silico manganese producers are also willing to procure imported ores due to better price realisations.
Indian silico manganese producers, at present, have a good number of orders in hand and are, therefore, procuring ores regularly from the spot traders. However, major silico manganese exporters have kept their ore imports at regular levels.
Although the scenario for imported ores has improved marginally, such is not the case with the domestic miners. Though prices of silico manganese are at an all-time high, domestic manganese ore miners could not increase their prices to maintain the price parity.
Meanwhile, private miners from Balaghat have expressed their concern over the rising production costs and lowered production volumes. Production costs have risen significantly due to increased diesel and labour charges. Most of the domestic private miners are reporting losses at present.
Current Assessment:
Prices of imported manganese ore this week are as follows:
CNF China, Mn 37%, South African origin: $4.45/dmtu;
CNF China, Mn 44%, Gabonese origin: $4.9/dmtu;
CNF India, Mn 37%, South African origin: $4.6/dmtu;
CNF India, Mn 44%, Gabonese origin: $5.05/dmtu;
CNF India, Mn 44%, Australian origin: $5.4/dmtu
Port inventory in China has decreased by 0.23 million tonnes (mn t), boosting sentiments of the South African miners, as the upstream buying tendency is clear. However, it might have some effect with Gabon-based manganese ore miner Comira lowering its official prices in Jun’21 by $0.25/dmtu to $4.6dmtu for the Gabonese block.
Outlook
Most of the market participants have adopted a wait-and-watch approach for bulk shipments, as they are willingly waiting for the major manganese ore giants to release their offers for next month.
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