India: Carbonate Ore Prices Increased amid a Shortage of Supply

Imported Manganese Ore Prices have been witnessing a positive trend since the past two weeks amid supply crunch in the Indian market. A Silico Manganese producer shared with SteelMint that due to a drop in the Manganese alloy prices, the ore prices went under pressure and were down, however, this had a cascading effect in the market as the miners had to stop production due to non-feasible rates. The producer also said that the supply situation may be tight for a while now, as the mines that have suspended production may take two-three months getting them mobilized.

Prices for Australian Lumps, Mn 46%, Fe 5% is up to USD 4.4/dmtu CIF India for Feb shipments. South African Carbonate Ore (Lumps, Mn 37-38%) is up by 40 cents/dmtu W-o-W to USD 3.85/dmtu CIF India, and Manganese Ore Lumps, Mn 44%, Fe 5% from Gabon is up to USD 4/dmtu for December Shipments. Prices have increased by 12% W-o-W for South African Carbonate Ore (Lumps, Mn 37-38%).

Chinese Market:
Meanwhile, in China, the ports are stocked with sufficient inventories for around two months, and with the down-trending Silico Manganese tender prices in China, the producers are resisting from buying high-priced ores. However, with the approaching Chinese holidays, they need to replenish their stocks and thus such resistance could only be short-lived.
Last week there was still a slight change in port inventory of Manganese ores, of which outbound movement is less than 3% and total inventory at Tianjin port was 3.5million tons. The outbound movement of Manganese ores at Qinzhou port is less than 10,000tons. The total inventory of Tianjin and Qinzhou ports exceed 4.5million tons. At the very moment, given that the alloy plants are running loss, their demand on ore will be shrinking following voluntary production shutdown. The pre-emptive move of increased semi-carbonate Manganese ores for Jan shipment did not catalyze the trend on other oxide Manganese ores and it is expected that Manganese ore in the short run may stay stable.

On the future outlook, the prices are likely to increase by a marginal amount in the coming weeks. As with the IMO 2020 getting implemented from next month, it is expected that the prices of ores may not decrease further.