Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) in association with MOIL Limited is conducting its national summit on Manganese Ore, Chrome Ore and Ferro Alloys in Visakhapatnam on 15th and 16th Feb’18.
Mr. Sanjay Pattnaik, President, FIMI, in his welcome speech enlightened the attendants with some major inputs wherein he focused towards sustainable and secured supply of raw materials to the steel industry.
Furthermore, he presented clear pathways leading to a huge potential of Manganese Ore, Chrome Ore, and Ferro Alloy sector. He mentioned about the Government’s plan of carving out a target of producing 300 MnT crude steel by 2030.
He also mentioned about India importing Manganese Ore and Chrome Ore despite having a rich resource of the commodities and the decline in annual production of the same. Hence, he encouraged the producers to focus on productivity, technology, and quality improvement in order to thrive in global competition.
Moreover, as per government’s National Steel Policy 2017, a stable electric supply has been promised to Ferro Alloy industry as it is power intensive. Hence, he urged that promotion of the industry through progressive market development strategy, India could improve its market share internationally.
Mr. Hrishikesh Das from Geovale Services Pvt. Ltd. pointed towards the enhancement of resources and reserves of Manganese Ore at the summit organized by FIMI in Vizag on 15th Feb’18.
India, being the seventh largest Manganese Ore producer has a resource of 495 MnT but its useful reserve is only 93 MnT, which barely makes 19% of the total resources.
In 2017, high-grade Manganese Ore witnessed a sharp rise in its prices as the consumption of Manganese ore in India is envisaged to be around 9 MnT, substantially exceeding its current production at 2.5 MnT.
Hence, he directed his session towards the enhancement of the resources and reserves of Manganese Ore with a strong focus.
The next speaker, Ms. Arshiya Sibia, CRU Group, has provided an insight on Manganese market, highlighting the worldwide Manganese Alloy production. She considered it to be healthy (apart from China). Moreover, she added that South Africa has been observing a major supply crunch.
Referring to the same, she said that global Manganese Ore prices witnessed a fluctuation of over USD 6/dmtu as the production of the commodity in China has been down, hence, increasing its dependence on imported ore.
While Mr. Sirsendu Mukherjee, from Tata Steel, presented a paper on chrome alloy market. He focused on Ferro Chrome production of China which is at around 4.2 MnT annually as the country contributes towards 60% of world’s stainless-steel production. He further mentioned that the current stainless-steel production is around 47-48 MnT and is expected to grow at 4%, which is considered to be healthy.
Mr. L.M. Bagga, MMTC Ltd., during his speech has shed some light on export policy of Chrome Ore and Manganese Ore. He hoped that the duty should be reduced to 10% for Chrome Conc. as it uses the beneficiated ore which is not much in demand in India. Additionally, he stated that India is highly dependent on imported Manganese Ore while export Manganese alloys and Ferro chrome to a huge extent.
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