Analysis on Steady Climb of International Manganese Ore Prices

SHANGHAI, Jan. 13 -- It is reported that manganese ore (Mn44%) from Australia were offered in the RMB 60-62 (USD 8.8-9.1)/mtu range, higher than level at RMB 58/mtu at the end of December of 2009; manganese ore (Mn46-48%) form Indonesia were raised by RMB 2/mtu to the range of RMB 53-55/mtu. Climb of manganese prices is attributed to the tight supply in global market and robust demand from Chinese alloy market.

Tight supply: global manganese ore producers began to cut output at the end of 2008, and control overall output at low levels due to unclear market trend. Currently, low output levels at most large mines could't meet robust demand from Chinese market. Overall speaking, market supply was relatively tight, because demand from market recovered faster than market expectation when most producers cut down their output.

Increased demand: some alloy producers in southwest China planned to increase output for the good expectation from steels mills in Q2, which helped increase the demand of manganese ore. In addition, prices of manganese alloy soared in recent weeks, with prices climbing from the range of RMB 7,700-8,100/mtu in January 8th to the range of RMB 8,200-8,400 (USD 1,200-1,230)/mtu, which also helped push up steady climb of manganese ore prices.

Reduced inventories: Ore was especially tight in the northern Chinese ports such as Lianyungang and in the southern ports of Zhanjiang, Beihai and Qinzhou. Most traders told that they had low inventories on hand.

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