China's manganese ore prices rise on cost support

The higher costs of users caused Chinese prices of manganese ore to reverse up this week, with the price of South Africa-origin 36.5% grade manganese ore at North China's Tianjin port under Mysteel's assessment reaching Yuan 33.5/dmtu ($4.6/dmtu) including the 13% VAT as of April 9. This was higher by Yuan 0.8/dmtu on week and ended the persistent fall since the end of February, Mysteel Global learned.

Accounting for the recovery were mainly the higher offering prices of major manganese ore overseas miners, which lifted the import costs of domestic traders and encouraged them to raise their sales prices accordingly.

For example, Eramet Comilog, the major manganese ore exporter from Central Africa's Gabon, has decided to hike its prices for 44.5% Mn content manganese lump ore by another $0.5/dmtu on month to $4.9/dmtu CIF China for shipments in May, according to Mysteel's survey.

In parallel, the better performance of China's silicomanganese futures market and the recovery in silico manganese spot prices also gave Chinese manganese ore traders some confidence to lift their Mn offering prices.

On Tuesday, the most-traded silico manganese contract on the Zhengzhou Futures Exchange for delivery in May strengthened for the fourth consecutive trading day to close the daytime trading session at Yuan 6,250/t, up by Yuan 140/t from the settlement price on April 2, according to the exchange's data.

As of April 9, the national price of 6517 silico manganese was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 5,802/t including the 13% VAT, edging up Yuan 6/t from one week earlier.

Although manganese ore sales prices have increased, the ore volumes being traded in the physical market have not recovered, Mysteel Global noted. Market insiders cited the reduced demand for ore from silico manganese smelters amid their production cutbacks.

Meanwhile, total inventories of manganese ore at China's major ports declined slightly to 5.19 million tonnes as of April 5, lower by 169,000 tonnes or 3.2% compared with the prior week, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.