The domestic output of EMM will be 23,000 mt in March, up 155% month-on-month and 78.3% year-on-year, according to SMM estimate.

The average spot prices of EMM in main producing areas fell by 500 yuan/mt to 15,000-17,300 yuan/mt compared with the average prices before the Qingming festival, and the average prices of FOB fell by $100/mt to $2,500-2,800/mt.

As of March 25, the average EMM prices across the major EMM producing regions fell by 3,500 yuan/mt on the week, with mainstream prices ranging between 18,000-22,000 yuan/mt. The overall decline eased in the second half of last week, with a cool atmosphere for supply and demand negotiations.

Although the downstream stocking is about to end, the spot stainless steel prices in Foshan rose more than expected last week.

On 13 December, Baosteel Desheng took the lead in issuing the Initiative on Jointly Maintaining the Order of the 200-Series Market and Regulating Market Behaviour and committed to cut the output of 200-series products from the perspective of balancing market demand and supply, by maintaining only one blast furnace in production by March 2022 in an effort to scale back the overall supply by more than 60%.

According to SMM statistics, the total supply of EMM in November was 91,300 mt, a decrease of 5% from the previous month. At the beginning of December, both supply and demand in the manganese market were weak, and the decline in the social inventories slowed down.

On December 1, ports in north China: Australian ore 45-46 yuan/mtu, South African manganese semicarbonate ore 34-35 yuan/mtu, Gabonese ore 41-42 yuan/mtu, Brazilian ore 42-43 yuan/mtu, South African high-iron manganese ore 34-35 yuan/mtu; ports in south China: Australian ore 47-48 yuan/mtu, South African manganese semicarbonate ore 37-39 yuan/mtu, Gabonese ore 43-44 yuan/mtu, Brazilian ore 43-44 yuan/mtu, South African high-iron ore 35-36 yuan/mtu.

The average EMM prices across the three major EMM producing (Songtao in Guizhou, Huayuan in Hunan, and Xiushan in Chongqing) and Guangxi stood at 40,000-40,500 yuan/mt last week, down 1,250 yuan/mt from a week ago.

South Africa’s national power company Eskom said on October 23 that it would cut the power supply by 2,000 megawatts due to the failure of the generator sets of its six power plants. The power curtailment continued until Oct 25.

The spot prices of stainless steel have been fluctuating widely since September. The prices rose by 1,000 yuan/mt in September, and then increased by 1,000 yuan/mt further after the National Day holiday amid the active market purchase. The prices have stabilised now.