The price for manganese flake has been rising since May this year because of the controls on the use of electricity during summer in several provinces in China, as well as production cuts at major manganese flake producers and strong demand from the steel industry, sources told Fastmarkets on Monday August 2.
Fastmarkets' latest price assessment for manganese 99.7%, electrolytic manganese flake, fob China, rose to $3,600-3,700 per tonne on July 30, up by 20.4% from $3,050-3,100 per tonne on July 23. The price was also up by 47.5% from $2,450-2,520 per tonne on May 7.China produces 95% of the world's supply of manganese flake, making the metal highly vulnerable to Chinese policy changes.Under its policies for carbon neutrality and peak emissions, China intends to tighten its controls over enterprises with high energy consumption.On the supply side, spot availability has tightened because some major producers have put their facilities under maintenance to upgrade their environmental controls.One major manganese flake producer in China has cut its operating rate to 60%, market sources told Fastmarkets.And many minor manganese flake producers will be shut down by the end of this year because they have failed to meet the standards required for environmental protection. After these...