India: Karnataka’s Manganese Ore E-auction fetches Bid at almost the set Floor Price

The Indian steel market is slack and so is the Ferro alloy market, resulting in the Indian Manganese alloy producers to lose interest in procuring the raw material, Manganese ore.

India’s state-owned trading company MSTC, which had conducted the e-auction of Manganese ore in Karnataka on 19 Dec’14, has fetched a total of 69 bids with producers from Andhra Pradesh & Karnataka being awarded most of the material. Increase in bids over floor value has been a mere 2.38%, compared with 11.4% in the previous held e-auction on 20 Nov, 2014. About 10,415 MT of Manganese ore was put on auction. The Manganese (Mn) content of the material offered ranged from 21-31% and Iron (Fe) content was in the range of 24-32%, according to information on MSTC’s website. For, Mn – 29%; Fe – 24 to 28%, H1 (winning bids) was awarded in the range INR 5,000–5,010/MT (USD 2.7–2.72 /dmtu), including royalty and FDT. Floor price was set at INR 5,000 /MT.

Silico manganese prices have corrected over INR 2,500 /MT M-o-M, which has made manufacturers cautious on taking positions. Silico manganese prices for week 52 (22-28 Dec’14) were assessed at INR 52,000-52,500/MT ex-Raipur and INR 52,500-53,000/MT ex-Durgapur.

Exchange Rate : USD 1 = INR 63.5