French mining and metallurgy company Eramet generated lower operating income from its manganese business in 2018 despite higher sales, the group announced in a results statement on Wednesday February 20.
This was a consequence of squeezed manganese alloy margins which offset strong manganese ore prices.Operating income at the manganese division dropped to ?,?699 million ($793 million) in 2018 from ?,?719 million in 2017. This was despite the fact that sales increased by 3% to ?,?1.86 billion ($2.11 billion) over the same period."Manganese business sales [excluding Mineral Sands activity], which account for about 49% of consolidated sales, grew by 2% to ?,?1.857 billion in 2018...