Price Of Manganese Ore Continues To Rise In Spite Of Scarce Actual Cargoes = India Turns To Import, Price Of Mn-Ore Has Risen To Level Of US$15 Per Mn 1% In spite of a scarcity of actual cargoes, the international price of manganese ore is continuing to rise and the negotiations on price of manganese ore for shipments in April - June quarter mostly passed a peak. It is now interested in seeing about the price of manganese ore to be negotiated for shipments in July - September quarter.
The matter in question is the prices of manganese ore settled for shipments in April - June quarter and a differential of the prices between regular contracts and entire spot contracts has enlarged further, giving a straight expression of insufficient actual cargoes. It is reported that spot price of manganese ore with Mn 42% and 44% contracted recently with China is US$17 per Mn 1% CIF, but South Korea was in a hurry to secure manganese ore and has contracted Australian manganese ore ( high grade lumpy ore with Mn 46% ) at an extreme high price of US$23 per Mn 1% CIF for shipments in April - June quarter.
At present, a general level of price for manganese ore to be shipped from Australia to China under regular contracts is US$13 per Mn 1% CIF but the actual situation of price for manganese ore is now easy to sell at US$15 without condition, indicating a further rise. The spot price of manganese ore purchased in emergency is that as mentioned above but, following China, India has entered into the market to import manganese ore. While India has given from last year a sign to import manganese ore, many Indian buyers ( concerned in ferro-alloys ) attended at The International Ferro-Alloys Conference held in last week in Hong Kong for seeking after manganese ore. Therefore, India is anticipated to become a positive country to import manganese ore and price of manganese ore to be fixed hereafter with India will form part of price settlement.
Originally, India has prohibited to export high grade manganese ore and allowed only exports of medium and low grades manganese ores. In the past years, India exported 280,000 tons in material of manganese ore for China in 2004 as the largest quantity in its history. However, the exports of manganese ore from India to China shrunk to a scale of 100,000 - 140,000 tons per annum in 2006 to 2007. India requires to import high grade manganese ore ( with lower content of phosphorus ), because the quantity of high grade ore mined in India has been limited. India has been also intending to increase production of silico-manganese for exports and, therefore, requires to import medium grade manganese ore.
The price of high grade lumpy manganese ore ( setting up the standard on Australian ore ) settled between Japanese consumers and BHP Billiton for shipments in the fiscal year of 2008 ( April 2008 to March 2009 ) is US$11.20 per Mn 1% FOB but it has been stipulated that the price as settled has to be reviewed on quarterly base by relating to the international movements of price for manganese ore ( when the price differs from more than 10% in comparison with the international price, it becomes the objective case to revise the price ). The internationally soaring price of manganese ore as mentioned above has included a possibility to become the theme to review it but the parties concerned said that, as far as the price of manganese ore settled for shipments in April - June quarter is concerned, it is not necessary to revise.
Many contracts of manganese ore for shipments to China have been based on Mn 44%, reflecting the soil in China where produces a large quantity of silico-manganese, but, on the other hand, this aspect has accorded with a tendency to produce manganese ore at overseas mines, because the quantities of high grade manganese ore with Mn 48 - 50% to be produced in overseas countries have been restrained. Under the circumstances, the quality of high grade manganese ore contracted with Japan for shipments in the fiscal year of 2008 has been normalized to be lowered from Mn 48% base at a former time to Mn 46% base at present in many contracts.
It will be no doubt that the quantity of manganese ore to be supplied to the world market in 2008 is estimated to have a shortage of more than one million tons, but a forecast of how to manage this shortage of manganese ore is not made yet A key to set up prices of manganese ferro-alloys for shipments in July - September quarter has been grasped by the movements of price for manganese ore in the same quarter.
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