China's manganese alloys market has continued its declining trend over the past week, as domestic steel mills have not yet entered the market for purchases, waiting instead for a further decline in manganese alloy prices. On the other hand, China's domestic ferrosilicon market has surged again due to the power rationing measures implemented in northwestern China.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Silicon manganese | FeMn65Si17 | Guangxi | 8,600 | -200 | 1,286 | -30 |
Ferrosilicon | FeSi75 | Gansu | 8,700 | +550 | 1,300 | +82 |
In the past week, the prices of manganese alloys in China have continued to show a downward trend. Currently, Chinese domestic market quotations of FeMn65Si17 are at RMB 8,400-8,700/mt ($1,256-1,300/mt), down RMB 200/mt (30/mt), week on week. At the same time, the mainstream price of FeMn65 stands at around RMB 8,300-8,500/mt ($1,241-1,271/mt), down RMB 200/mt (30/mt) week on week. Meanwhile, export offers of FeMn65Si17 are standing at $1,590/mt FOB.
Currently, domestic steel mills consider that there still exists room for downward movement of manganese alloy prices. As a result, although it is now the start of November, the manganese market is still registering few purchases from the steel mills. Looking at the current situation, the domestic manganese market is expected to continue to follow its weak trend in the near future.
During the past week Chinese ferrosilicon prices have moved up again. Current ex-works prices of ferrosilicon (75 percent) in China stand at RMB 8,600-8,800/mt ($1,286-1,315/mt), up RMB 500/mt ($75/mt) week on week, while export offers of ferrosilicon (75 percent) from China are standing at $1,800-1,850/mt FOB, with few transactions observed in the export market.
Over the past week Chinese ferrosilicon prices have surged again, with purchase prices from steel mills also up significantly, mainly due to the restricted outputs of ferrosilicon enterprises in China's main production regions, i.e., Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxai Hui Autonomous Region and Qinghai Province.
Currently, supplies in the ferrosilicon market are still shrinking. For the coming period, domestic ferrosilicon prices are expected to rise further in general, in line with the increases in the steel mills' purchase prices.