Global mining and metallurgy group Eramet has taken South Africa’s lockdown as an opportunity to increase its offers for Gabonese manganese ore significantly.
For March shipment, the price of manganese lump ore with 45 percent Mn content produced by Eramet’s Moanda mine in Gabon has soared by $1.4/dmtu to $5.55/dmtu CIF Tianjin. According to sources, as South Africa accounts for about 40 percent of global manganese ore production, the supply concerns which appeared among Chinese customers after South Africa went into lockdown are quite reasonable and will give proper support to Eramet. “Taking into account that there will be no cargoes in April, the stocks of manganese ore in China will continue to decrease,” one Chinese trader said. As of April 7, manganese ore inventories in China totaled 4.42 million mt, decreasing by 8.7 percent since their highest level in the middle of February, SteelOrbis has learned.