Anticipation of price fall of manganese metal in China grows - TEX
TEX reported that at the moment, the price of electrolytic manganese metal in the Chinese domestic market has remained flat, but the anticipation of a price fall is strong. This is because of anticipation of market crash due to the occurrence of realization sales arising from increased in-hand inventory of producers before Chinese New Year holidays (18th to 24th of February).
There are many producers in China which are suspending operation due to money losing production, and the quantity supplied to the market is down and the demand and supply balance has been kept. For this reason, the price meant for domestic consumption is remaining flat without ups and downs.
What's more, as to the market for export, the contract price in the tender for February purchase floated by POSCO, South Korea on January 20 was USD 1,959 per tonne CIF, down by USD 10 from January purchase, but as the impression on this price was the same level as the current market price, this didn't lead to the movement of the price in the market.
However, there is a strong anticipation of a price fall in the Chinese market as to the future trend. This is because there is an analytic view that the producers in operation are accumulating in-hand stocks as there are days between the turn of the year and Chinese New Year holidays, and also there is forecast that as some producers cannot lower the operational rate of just-completed new production facilities, it will be an unavoidable case that the supply quantity will increase once again.
Some market watchers anticipate the cheap-priced sales before Chinese New Year for realization sales will take place from January 26 at the earliest or within the first week of February.
Source - The TEX Report