SteelOrbis Shanghai
Over the past week, the Chinese manganese and silicon alloys markets maintained their trends of the previous week. Due to the tight supply of raw materials and the decline in inventory, manganese alloys prices continued to soar. Meanwhile, the ferrosilicon market still showed a positive tendency with a slight fluctuation seen in prices. Moreover, China's ferroalloy exports saw a considerable year-on-year increase in February.
On April 10, the market price of silicon manganese in southwestern and northern China was up RMB 100/mt ($13/mt) to RMB 5,500-5,600/mt ($712-725/mt), while that of high carbon ferromanganese (65#) in Guangxi and Shanxi is around RMB 5,000-5,200/mt ($648-674/mt). The ex-factory price of high carbon ferromanganese (75#) was up RMB 200/mt ($26/mt) to RMB 6,000/mt ($777/mt). Meanwhile, the market price of ferrosilicon (75#) remained at RMB 5,000-5,100/mt ($648-660/mt).
As regards manganese alloys, due to the continuous price increase and tight availability of manganese ore, the Chinese market continued to soar during last week. Although the mills sharply raised their purchase price, this still was not sufficient to relieve the low inventory situation. Moreover, coke prices have also risen by RMB 30-50/mt ($4-7/mt), which affected the blast furnace ferromanganese market to a certain extent. Currently, the purchase price of siliconmanganese in eastern China is close to RMB 6,000/mt ($777/mt).
With regard to ferrosilicon, prices fluctuated within a small range over the past week. In spite of the rising costs of both raw materials and transportation, the lack of upward momentum in the market made it hard for market prices to climb up further. The future market is expected to maintain overall stability. Meanwhile, the export market seemed to perform better compared with the previous week, with quotations standing at around $790-810/mt FOB and with actual concluded prices at approximately $795/mt FOB.
In February, China's ferroalloy imports totaled 76,745.4 mt, up 216.54 percent year on year; while total combined imports for January and February reached 180,261.17 mt. On the other hand, February exports totaled 238,204.46 mt, up 86.68 percent year on year and down 39,000 mt month on month. Meanwhile, total combined exports for January and February stood at 515,402.8 mt. Broken down into the various products, ferrosilicon exports totaled 140,795.03 mt, up 65.37 percent year on year; while siliconmanganese exports totaled 42,352.75 mt, up 55.91 percent; and finally, ferromanganese exports totaled 15,614.89 mt, up 175.31 percent.