Slow activity and rising inventory in Chinese manganese ore market

China's domestic manganese ore market has indicated a stable trend during the past week. The mainstream quotations of Australian lump ore with 46 percent Mn content currently stand at $6.77-7.01/dmtu at China's Tianjin port, while offers of lump ore of 48 percent Mn content are at $7.18/dmtu. Also at Tianjin port, quotations for 44 percent grade Mn ore from Gabon are at $6.36/dmtu, while offers of South African lump ore of 38 percent Mn content are at $5.63/dmtu.
 
Trading activity in the Chinese domestic manganese ore market has remained slack during the past seven days, while inventory levels have continued to rise. Meanwhile, Australian miner BHP Billiton has announced unchanged manganese ore quotations for China for January delivery. It is believed that the high inventory levels in China may cause BHP Billiton to reduce its supply volumes to the country. On the downstream side, domestic manganese alloy prices have also maintained a stable trend, while manganese alloy production volumes are low and so do not provide much support for manganese ore demand. Overall, China's domestic manganese ore market is expected to see a continuation of its stable trend in the coming week.