Silico Manganese prices have found support at current levels, showing very little indication of change, with a lack of buying interest from Steel mills.
Domestic demand for Silico Manganese continues to be thin, and market participants highlighted that purchasing was very low in the week gone by. Silico Manganese 60-14 is being offered at around INR 70,500-71,000/MT (Ex-Raipur) and INR 71,000/MT (Ex-Durgapur).
Post fiscal year end, the demand for Silico Manganese did not witness any improvement but market participants are expecting healthier demand to return from steel mills that postponed purchasing and have run down inventory.
MOIL hiked manganese ore prices by 12.5% over the prevailing Mar’18 prices of Ferro grade, Silico Manganese grades and Fines for Q1 effective from 1 April 2018. Silico Manganese offers are likely to find support for higher Manganese Ore prices. A producer source mentioned that they are prompted to raise their offers as the production cost is too high to maintain margins.
In the export market, Indian producers have maintained offer levels as demand from foreign buyers has been very soft. Silico Manganese 60-14 is being offered at USD 1080-1100 /MT FOB East-coast India, and Silico Manganese 65-16 is being offered at USD 1200 /MT FOB East-coast India.
SteelMint assessed that unless steel fundamentals show no sign of improvement, end-user demand for Silico Manganese will continue to be capped.
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