Hebei Steel, China's second largest steel mill, has announced its purchase price for silico-manganese will be 6,100 yuan ($870) per tonne for November delivery, down by 1,200 yuan per tonne from its October tender price, market sources told Fastmarkets on Thursday November 7.
This compares with the October delivery tender price set at 7,300 yuan per tonne in late September. Hebei Steel released its silico-manganese bid price on Thursday afternoon Shanghai time and the price was quickly accepted by the country's alloy smelters. Purchasing volume for November delivery stands at 24,610 tonnes, down from 26,920 tonnes in October. "I think this should be the first time this year that alloy smelters accept the bid price [for silico-manganese from Hebei Steel] so quickly. And this is possibly because the price is better than their expectations," a Chinese market participant said. Some alloy smelters had been concerned that Hebei Steel would push the price below 6,000 yuan...