Indian silicomanganese market had witnessed a sharp increase in prices since Jan’ 21. However, the increasing price trend has now snapped on restricted buying interest. Meanwhile, due to shortage of material in the Raipur market, prices were much higher than other regions. This had a cascading effect and a lot of lower-cost material from other parts of the country started coming into Raipur. This created selling pressure on few Raipur based producers and they had to lower the prices.
Meanwhile, due to increased cases of Covid and the ongoing lockdown, production units are facing labour shortages. Producers reported that the major issue is with the availability of contractual labour. These labourers are mostly for non-skilled jobs like breaking and packing of material. Thus, it is anticipated that Raipur might face further issues due to the lockdown. However, Durgapur based industries have no labour issues as of now.
Silicomanganese 60/14 is assessed at INR 90,000-91,000/t Ex-Raipur and INR 88,000-89,000/t Ex-Durgapur. Meanwhile, export prices remained stable with most exporters offering June shipments.
A major Indian silicomanganese exporter informed that unlike the domestic market, the international market still remains healthy and they are currently offering June-July shipments. The exporter remains booked for the next month, while now they have started offering July shipments as well. Currently, producers are asking for a premium of around $20-30/t for immediate shipments in the export market. Silicomanganese 60/14 is assessed at $1,200/t Fob India and 65/16 grade is assessed at $1300/t Fob India.
Market participants await the SAIL tender results and are keen to know about the L1 prices so that they can get a better sense of the future market trend.
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