Seaborne prices of both low and high-grade manganese ore in China registered further falls in the week to November 20 after falling portside ore prices and continuously rising port inventories continued to weigh on overall market sentiment, sources said.
Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, cif Tianjin fell by 13 cents, or 3.4%, week on week to $3.70 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday November 20.
Fastmarkets' manganese ore index 37% Mn, fob Port Elizabeth slid by 15 cents, or 4.7%, week on week to $3.01 per dmtu on the same day.
Miners made lower offers for low-grade seaborne manganese ore for January and February shipments late last week, compared to those made for December shipments, in response to the weak sentiment partly stemming from falling portside ore prices, market sources said.
"We heard miners sold out of volumes soon after the offer came out and we're not surprised. The offer is indeed appealing to those with the particular intention of averaging out overall purchase prices further because it's slightly cheaper than the corresponding portside prices," a Chinese ore trader said.
"It's...