The European manganese alloy markets climbed strongly over the week to Friday April 30, propelled by strong spot demand from consumers in the steel sector as well inter-merchant trade.
Prices for both silico-manganese and high-carbon ferro-manganese hit ?,?1,300 per tonne delivered at the top of their respective price ranges on Friday, a level last seen in each market more than four years ago in early 2017.
The end-user markets for manganese alloys in construction and in the automotive sector were showing signs of a strong return to growth this year, while there have been shortages of steel supply in Europe, and only limited import availability due to container shortages and trade protection measures.
Silico-manganese is used to make long steel for the construction sector, such as rebar and wire mesh. Ferro-manganese is used as a deoxidizer in steel production and in finished products for vehicle manufacture and stainless steel. Steel mills tend to use ferro-silicon and ferro-manganese together when making the flat steel typically used in carmaking.
"The situation at [global alloy steel producer] Ferroglobe with production cuts,...