Over the past week, China's manganese alloy market has followed a generally weak trend due to poor demand. Meanwhile, China's ferrosilicon market is in confusion as regards market prices, mainly owing to the uncertainties surrounding domestic electricity charges.
Product name | Specification | Place of origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Silicon manganese | FeMn65Si17 | Guangxi | 8,250 | - | 1,210 | - |
Ferrosilicon | FeSi75 | Gansu | 6,700 | +100 | 982 | +15 |
In the past week, the market quotations of FeMn65Si17 have been at RMB 8,200-8,400/mt ($1,202-1,232/mt) in the north of China, unchanged week on week, while market quotations of the same material in the southern region have remained at RMB 7,900-8,200/mt ($1,158-1,202/mt). At the same time, the mainstream price of FeMn65 has been standing at around RMB 8,200-8,400/mt ($1,202-1,232/mt), down RMB 100-200/mt ($15-29/mt) week on week, while export offers of FeMn65Si17 have remained at $1,500-1,550/mt FOB.
During the past week, China's manganese alloy market has maintained its weak trend, with few deals concluded. Since market players are not optimistic on the prospects for the manganese alloy market and think that manganese alloys may continue their downward trend in June, mills and traders have slowed down their purchases and are waiting for the leading mills to announce their new purchase prices. Due to the sluggishness witnessed in the steel market, some medium- and small-sized mills have already cut production, which will result in reduced consumption of manganese alloys to some extent. On the manganese ore side, despite some decline in quotations of imported manganese ore, it is thought that there is limited room for downward movement.
In the past week the ex-factory price of ferrosilicon (75 percent) has been at RMB 6,600-6,800/mt ($968-997/mt) in northwestern China, up RMB 100/mt ($15/mt) week on week. In addition, export quotations of domestic ferrosilicon (75 percent) have remained at $1,380-1400/mt FOB, stable compared with the previous week.
The domestic ferrosilicon market has witnessed confusion as regards market prices. Due to the uncertainties surrounding domestic electricity charges, most companies have followed a wait-and-see stance and have stopped making offers. It is heard that electricity charges in the Ningxia region will increase to RMB 0.455/kWh, which means that the electricity cost for ferrosilicon production will increase to as high as RMB 4,500/mt ($660/mt). Meanwhile, it is reported that electricity charges in Gansu, Qinghai and Inner Mongolia will increase by RMB 0.05-0.1/kWh, which may result in an increase of RMB 500-1,000/mt ($73-147/mt) in production costs.