Positive Sentiment After the Holiday, Electrolytic Manganese Market Overall Price Increase [SMM Electrolytic Manganese Daily Review]

Chile's central bank reported on September 1 that the July Imacec economic activity index fell 1.5% year-on-year on an unadjusted basis. On a seasonally adjusted basis, the index fell 2.1% year-on-year and 1.7% month-on-month, marking the steepest monthly decline since 2022. The bank attributed the drop mainly to mining, which fell a significant 9.3%, primarily due to weather conditions, followed by lower ore grades and equipment maintenance that disrupted normal production operations. Many of the affected mines are copper-molybdenum associated deposits. Since molybdenum concentrate is recovered as a byproduct of the flotation process used to treat copper sulfide ore, the disruption to processing plants also curtailed molybdenum output.

Northam Platinum said on August 25 that it had received an unsolicited, exploratory and non-binding approach from a major South African platinum group metals (PGM) producer and subsequently initiated a strategic, competitive process to solicit proposals from interested parties. Valterra Platinum is widely understood to be the potential bidder, while Impala Platinum and Sibanye-Stillwater have indicated that they are not interested. Northam has set December 1 as the deadline for interested parties to submit proposals, with any potential transaction potentially taking the form of an asset-level transaction or a corporate transaction. The potential deal also has implications for South Africa's chrome concentrate market, as Northam has rapidly expanded its chrome output from UG2 processing. Northam's FY2026 chrome concentrate production reached a record 1.69 million mt, while its Vision 2031 strategy targets more than 2 million mt of chrome concentrate sales over the next five years. Valterra is also targeting chrome concentrate sales of more than 2 million mt under its growth strategy. A transaction involving the two companies could therefore significantly increase the strategic importance and scale of chrome within a combined PGM portfolio, although the final structure and any impact on chrome production, processing and sales would depend on the outcome of the competitive process.

[Production cut benefits materialize, spot and futures diverge, silicon metal prices in stalemate]: This week, spot silicon metal prices consolidated on a strong note. As of September 3, SMM oxygen-blown #553 silicon in east China was at 9,400-9,500 yuan/mt, up 50 yuan/mt WoW, #441 silicon was at 9,500-9,700 yuan/mt, up 50 yuan/mt WoW, and #3303 silicon was at 10,100-10,300 yuan/mt, up 50 yuan/mt WoW. In the futures market, the SI2611 contract moved sideways in the 8,650-8,865 yuan/mt range this week, shot up to 8,865 yuan/mt early in the week before pulling back, and closed at 8,735 yuan/mt on Thursday, down 70 yuan/mt WoW. In terms of market quotes and transactions, after production cuts at large plants in Xinjiang were implemented, silicon enterprises increased their efforts to hold prices firm, low-priced cargoes in the market decreased, silicon enterprises quoted firmly, and some suppliers raised quotes slightly. Affected by long positions taking profits and macro sentiment, silicon metal futures prices pulled back weakly, wait-and-see sentiment in the market intensified, market transactions remained need-based, and the price center consolidated at highs.