Manganese Ore Prices Fail to Strengthen despite the Power Shortage in South Africa

SHANGHAI, Oct 27 (SMM) – 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.

Eskom pointed out that the drop in the power load was caused by the multiple trips of different power stations and the delayed service resumption, which made the company seriously dependent on the emergency power generation reserves, which were currently very low. The power rationing is necessary to ensure the emergency reserves.

According to SMM survey, most mining companies have their own power generation facilities, and this power rationing has relatively little impact on the import of the South African manganese ore in a short period of time.

The manganese ore inventories stand high at the domestic ports, and the downstream industries are repeatedly disturbed by the power rationing, so the downstream production is unstable.

The new round of the bid solicitation has not started yet, and the ore prices stand high recently. The alloy plants hold a wait-and-see stance.

If the domestic power rationing remains tight, the demand of manganese ore will weaken further, and the ore prices may slide in the short term, regardless of the power supply in South Africa.