Manganese price inches down on reluctant buyers

SHANGHAI, Jul 13 (SMM) – Manganese prices showed signs of decline on Friday July 13 as sellers lowered offers to boost trades when buyers hesitated, SMM learned.

SMM assessed manganese in major Chinese markets at 17,700-17,800 yuan/mt ex-works on Friday, down from 18,000 yuan/mt a day earlier. This followed a surge since late June, when the assessment stood at 13,900 yuan/mt.

However, tight supply in the market is set to linger with environmental restrictions unlikely to ease in major producing areas in the short term. 

In Ningxia, one of the three manganese plants at local major producer Tianyuan Group remained under suspension as of July 13, failing to recover in late June. It was shut in mid-May, affecting annual capacity of 200,000 mt, SMM learned. 

In Songtao county of Guizhou province, manganese producers will not resume production before July 17, when the inspection team is scheduled to leave after one week of examination. All manganese plants and some parts of mines there have been suspended since June 1, by Songtao government, after slag and water pollution woes drew public attention.