Indian manganese ore miners have announced offers this week following price announcement by country’s largest producer – MOIL. On 1 February, 2024, MOIL, the Indian state-owned PSU miner, has rolled over manganese ore prices for grades with Mn 44% and above for February, 2024. However, for grade below 44 and fines, the miner has lifted offers by 5%.
Factors that are driving manganese ore prices:
Imported manganese ore offers rise m-o-m: Price offers for manganese ore (Lumps, Mn 37%, (USD/dmtu) hovered at around $3.9/dmtu on 27 January 2024, up from $3.65/dmtu seen in end-December, 2023.
Silico manganese offers surge to three-month high: Offers for silico manganese (25-150 mm, HC 60-14) also scaled up by INR 1,500/t ($18/t), traded at around INR 66,700-67,100/t ($805-$809/t) exw Durgapur, Raipur, and Vizag on 1 February, 2024. Production curtailment and active inquiries have propelled domestic silico manganese prices in India to rise to a three-month high, revealed data maintained with BigMint.
Looking onto the global as well as domestic scenario prices of manganese ore, it is anticipated that prices would remain supported in the near term.
In CY’23, India’s domestic manganese ore production was around 3 mnt. Madhya Pradesh accounted for largest share of 26% followed by Maharashtra and Odisha at 25% and 21% respectively.