I wish you blokes luck, but it seems that nobody is listening as to why a manganese smelter in Indonesia makes no sense.
Cost of power is the most important consideration.
Look at Transalloys who sold the 2 x furnaces to GMC. Why did they sell? Why is the manganese alloy business in South Africa nearly stuffed completely?
THE COST OF POWER
350% increase in a decade: how expensive is electricity in South Africa compared to other countries?
29Sep
by Sean Moolman
0
Electricity prices in South Africa have dramatically outpaced inflation over the past decade (ever since the 2008 electricity supply shortage crisis). Recently, Eskom has won a court case allowing it to recover historical ‘losses’ or under-recoveries (the so-called regulatory clearing account or RCA).
After a brief respite in 2017 (when an increase of only 2.2% was granted by NERSA, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa), Eskom has submitted an application to NERSA for a
19.9% electricity tariff increase in 2018, and might still add additional RCA applications.
View attachment 757932
This research document shows that Power/electricity costs in South Africa are a serious problem.
The cost of power/electricity in Indonesia is even more expensive.
In China the cost of power is US$0.06c/KWh to US$0.07c/KWh and even this is a problem as noted in an Asian Metal interview.
- As for disadvantages, the electricity cost is much higher, which is RMB0.5/kwh (USD0.07/kwh) in South China and RMB0.4/kwh (USD0.06/kwh) in North China. The electricity cost is higher by RMB400/t (USD58.12/t) by rough estimation.
Did you know that Transalloys started making ferro manganese in South Africa in 1964, with 2 x 15MVA submerged arc furnaces and were upgraded in the 1970's to 21MVA, are these the furnaces that GMC is buying?
Some old crap 60 year old.
I cannot find any GMC ASX announcement to tell you the age of the smelters.
