During the past week, the Chinese common alloys market has followed an overall weak trend. While the manganese alloy market in southern China has registered a relatively rapid decline, the northern region is generally stable. Meanwhile, due to the reduction in market demand, the domestic ferrosilicon market will very likely maintain its softening trend in the short term.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Silicon manganese | FeMn65Si17 | Guangxi | 8,350 | -100 | 1,224 | -15 |
Ferrosilicon | FeSi75 | Gansu | 6,600 | -100 | 968 | -15 |
In the past week, the market quotations of FeMn65Si17 have been at RMB 8,400-8,550/mt ($1,232-1,254/mt) in the north of China, unchanged week on week, while market quotations of the same material in the southern region have declined to RMB 8,000-8,300/mt ($1,173-1,217/mt). At the same time, the mainstream price of FeMn65 has been standing at around RMB 8,500/mt ($1,246/mt), while export offers of FeMn65Si17 have declined to $1,500-1,550/mt FOB.
Over the past week, China's manganese alloys market has witnessed a softening trend, with fewer deals concluded. Due to the overall decline in charges for electricity, the lowest quotations for manganese alloys in the provinces of Yunnan and Guangxi have declined to RMB 8,000/mt ($1,173/mt). According to manganese alloy producers in the south, quotations of manganese alloys are not expected to decline by much thanks to the higher price of manganese ore.
In the past week the ex-factory price of ferrosilicon (75 percent) has been at RMB 6,500-6,700/mt (953-982) in northwestern China, down RMB 100/mt ($15/mt) compared with the previous week. In addition, export quotations of domestic ferrosilicon (75 percent) have been at $1,380-1400/mt FOB.
The Chinese domestic ferrosilicon market is experiencing some confusion as regards market prices. While large-sized ferrosilicon producers have held on to their prices, medium- and small-sized producers have started to lower their quotations. It is expected that the domestic ferrosilicon market may trend downward in general due to reduced orders and inquiries. Meanwhile, in the export market, offers for overseas were too high to gain acceptance and so have dropped down to below $1,400/mt, in line with the downward trend observed in the domestic market.