Manganese ore availability in Chinese ports is tighter than high stocks suggest because market participants are avoiding selling into falling markets, which is leading to "frozen stocks," market sources report.
Manganese ore prices have fallen by as much as 8% over the past month due to deteriorating sentiment, aggressive bidding and high stocks. Fastmarkets' 37% manganese ore index, cif Tianjin dropped to $5.26 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday June 14 from $5.28 a week earlier and from $5.75 in mid-May.This decline has left both traders and manganese alloy smelters holding material in China's ports based on previous high prices, meaning they want to avoid selling or consuming the material in today's markets. "The average price of material in ports is $6 per dmtu...