GLOBAL MANGANESE SNAPSHOT: Seaborne ore offers fall amid low portside prices, high stocks [CORRECTED]

Asia

• Seaborne prices for high and low-grade manganese ore fell following lower offers amid high inventories and weakening market sentiment.
• Falling portside ore prices put additional downward pressure on both grades of material.
• Portside manganese ore prices of both grades ticked down amid diminishing buying interest after smelters stocked up in the previous two weeks.
• China’s spot silico-manganese price was unmoved amid slow business, with smelters holding offers relatively firm.

Europe

• Support for the European manganese alloy markets persisted for the fifth consecutive week, with limited supplies from domestic and overseas sources encouraging suppliers to hold their offer prices.
• The spot markets are likely to remain steady until early December when consumers have said they will be in the market for ferro-alloy supplies for shipments in the first quarter of 2021.

India

• The export market bounced back, breaking a downtrend over the past three months, with sellers reporting sales into Japan.
• Japanese importers tried to resist exporter price rises in India but stronger domestic Indian prices for lower-grade silico-manganese and stabilizing price losses in the manganese ore markets ultimately benefited the Indian exporters.

United States

• The United States’ manganese alloy market steadied temporarily, halting recent gains, with spot activity dormant.
• Market participants suspect the uptrend will resume when spot trading restarts. In the interim, market participants said they will continue to focus on long-term negotiations for 2021.

(This article has been updated to correct the manganese ore 37% cif Tianjin and 37% fob Port Elizabeth indices, which were published incorrectly on Friday November 20. Fastmarkets’ pricing database has been updated to reflect the correction).