Pause Button Pressed at Qinzhou Port, Manganese alloy and Ore Logistics Disrupted

SHANGHAI, Mar 17 (SMM) - From 0 – 24:00 on 16 March, there were 7 new confirmed local COVID cases in Guangxi (all in Qinzhou City) and 23 new local asymptomatic infections. As at 24:00 on 16 March, there were altogether 83 confirmed local cases and 136 asymptomatic local infections in the province.

Guangxi issued an important notice today. According to the pandemic prevention measures in Qinnan District, Qinzhou City, all communities in the city shall have only one access for exit and enter, and only pandemic control personnel is allowed to enter or leave the communities. From March 17 to 19, there will a period of "three-day silence", which means that "no one will be allowed to leave their homes, no cars will be allowed to go out on the streets, and all residents will go through nucleic acid tested, so that no one will be left out".

In addition, all enterprises and port service units located in the Qinzhou port area in the Free Trade Zone will be closed, and all units and enterprises will work from home and suspend relative production and business activities.

As far as SMM understands, the "pause button" has been pressed in Qinzhou port. Although the production of manganese alloy is not greatly affected for the time being, the road transportation has been blocked. And the finished products cannot circulate in the market for the time being.

In addition, as the overall market in south China depends on the supply of manganese ore from Qinzhou port, the short-term disrupted manganese ore has led to steeply less transactions in the market. And the prices are stable for the time being.

On the whole, except for the transport disruption in the short term, other aspects like production have not been greatly affected. And the market needs to pay attention to the further development of the pandemic prevention and control measures.