Price gap closing between seaborne and portside manganese ore

The gap between seaborne and portside manganese ore prices, which had lasted throughout most of this year, came to a closing point in the week ending Friday September 3 after seaborne prices weakened once again, whereas port markets remained resilient.

Traditionally in the manganese market, seaborne prices are lower than portside prices to incentivize buying interest. But the situation reversed this year after miners had to raise their offers primarily due to increased production and transport costs in origins, as well as expensive freight rates.
At the same time, however, a lack of support from the demand side - after smelters from main consuming regions lowered their production - has undermined port markets' sustainable growth.
High-grade market
Some miners in the high-grade market initiated lower offers to attract buying interest.
Sellers have reported that end users are about to become more selective about the high-grade material they buy, because any shipments booked next month are likely to arrive in China over winter, when low temperatures make high-moisture content manganese ore harder to handle.

As a result, Fastmarkets' assessment of...

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