South Africa's weather disruptions start to hit manganese ore supply

The manganese ore market is starting to see the effects on supply that are the results of severe weather between December 2020 and February this year, sources have told Fastmarkets.

Severe rains battered the country for several weeks, causing flooding that washed away parts of rail infrastructure and disrupted production operations.
There was a delayed reaction in the market to the weather reports, and prices initially took no account of them, but they were cited as part of a combination of upward pressures on prices in late February, along with rising freight rates and a stronger South African rand.

Fastmarkets' manganese ore index, 37% Mn, cif Tianjin, rose to $4.94 per dry metric tonne unit (dmtu) on Friday...

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