Prices for manganese ores to be shipped to China during May 2012 were raised, BHP Billiton announced this week.
Namely, the prices for May (all on CIF basis) are US$5.00/dmtu for GEMCO Lumps (Mn: 46%), up by US$0.25/dmtu), US$4.30/dmtu for Metallurgical Fines (Mn: 48%), up by US$0.2/dmtu, and US$4.50/dmtu for Mamatwan Lumps (Mn: 38%), up by US$0.40/dmtu.
The prices for the ores were lowered by 17 - 20% for January shipments then kept unchanged for February/March shipments. For April shipments, only the price for the Metallurgical Fines (Mn: 48%) were raised with the prices for the other two grades were rolled over from March. It is forecasted that demand for steel products will rebound in April onward, requiring higher crude steel output for which consumption of manganese group ferroalloys will grow. |
