Chinese electrolytic manganese metal prices rose this week on tightening supplies in the market, sources said Thursday. Major electrolytic manganese metal producers in China have kept their run rates lower due to continued maintenance checks and poor demand in the market.
Platts assessed 99.7% manganese at $2,050-2,080/mt FOB China Thursday, an increase of 1% or $20/mt from the previous week.
Industrial sources peg domestic demand ex-works prices at Yuan 12,700/mt ($2,059/mt), up Yuan 200/mt or 1.6% on week.
A Shenzhen-based producer said that they are still maintaining their run rates at 70%.
"We are still undergoing maintenance checks at our plants and would likely resume 100% run rates in October," said the producer source. He said that they had delayed their original plan to restart operations at one of their production lines in September.
Despite the delay, the producer source said that they managed to sell about 120 mt of electrolytic manganese metal to Japanese buyers at $2,100/mt FOB China.
The producer source also added that several domestic manganese ore mines were undergoing safety checks, hence, supply of manganese ore to several electrolytic manganese metal producers were affected.
However, a Shaanxi-based trader said that prices of domestic manganese ore were still unchanged and the recent disruption from the manganese ore mines "would not drastically affect the output of manganese metal producers", instead, he reasoned that reduced run rates due to maintenance checks by producers was the main reason for the price increase.
Industry sources peg domestic 15%-Mn Ore at Yuan 650-660/mt delivered to manganese metal production plants, unchanged on week. About 8-10 mt of 15%-Mn ore is required for every mt of manganese metal produced.
A Beijing-based Japanese trader said that he had received offers from Chinese sellers at around $2,060/mt FOB China. However, he said that prices were still too high and he had no intention to purchase material. He also added that the Japanese market would be quiet next week due to upcoming festivities. Hence, he said that prices would likely stay stable next week.
Electrolytic manganese is commonly used as an alloy agent for steel production. China is the largest manganese electrolytic metal producer in the world with about 90% of global production.
