Silicon social inventories shrank 2,000 mt on week

According to the latest release from the General Administration of Customs and SMM statistics, China’s silicomanganese exports stood at 7,006.09 tonnes in August 2026, down 16.30 % month‑on‑month and up 52.54 % year‑on‑year. Cumulative silicomanganese exports for January‑August totalled 40,233.24 tonnes, rising 91.2 % year‑on‑year.

According to the latest release from the General Administration of Customs and SMM statistics, China’s manganese ore imports totaled 2.5663 million tonnes in August 2026, down 16.82% month‑on‑month and 26.38% year‑on‑year. Notably, although August monthly imports weakened, the overall import market maintained growth throughout the year.

As of September 18, 2026, China's total chrome ore inventory at ports fell to 5.181 million mt, down 136,300 mt (-2.56%) from 5.318 million mt on September 11, marking the first weekly draw after two straight weeks of buildup. Tianjin Port accounted for nearly the entire pullback, dropping 123,400 mt (-2.63%) to 4.562 million mt, still 88.1% of the national total and essentially unchanged in share from the prior week. Qinzhou plus Fangchenggang eased a further 2,900 mt (-0.70%) to 409,300 mt, while Chongqing posted the sharpest proportional decline, down 10,000 mt (-11.11%) to 80,000 mt. Lianyungang, Shanghai, the smaller Caofeidian-grouped ports and Zhanjiang were all unchanged week-on-week, meaning the entire national draw was concentrated between Tianjin, Qinzhou/Fangchenggang and Chongqing. The draw at Tianjin lines up with a modest but real improvement in downstream sentiment. High-carbon ferrochrome's weekly average slipped again for the week ended September 11, to RMB 7,850 per 50mt basis ton, down RMB 50, extending the multi-month softening on oversupply. But stainless steel futures snapped a five-week losing streak over September 14-18, edging up as collapsing nickel costs handed mills back some margin, a shift that likely nudged Inner Mongolia's ferrochrome producers, the main consumers of Tianjin-warehoused ore, toward more active drawdown of port stocks ahead of the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays. That said, a parallel read-across from this week's manganese ore market, where pre-holiday stockpiling was described as falling short of expectations, suggests the pull is real but not aggressive, consistent with a moderate rather than sharp reversal here. On the supply side, the pullback also coincides with the likely landing window for cargoes that left South African and Mozambican ports in mid-August, when departures fell more than 37% week-on-week in back-to-back weeks, a thinner inbound pipeline that would have compounded the draw just as onshore demand ticked up