Chinese manganese ore price high

Chinese manganese ore market remains at high price levels at present, and market participants believe the price of the material will not retreat in the near future.
A Shandong-based manganese ore trader, who offers Indonesian lumpy manganese ore 42% at RMB60/dmtu (USD8.25/dmtu) ex ports, has concluded no deal these days. However, the source thinks the price of the material is hard to retreat in the coming days, so he refuses to decrease the offer of the material now.
"Although manganese ore market is not very active now," said the source. "We will not decrease the offer of the material because I think our offer is lower than others, who offer the material at RMB65-70/dmtu (USD8.94-9.63/dmtu) ex ports in the spot market."
A Liaoning-based manganese alloy smelter purchased 80t of Brazilian lumpy manganese ore 46.7% at RMB90/dmtu (USD12.38/dmtu) delivered last week. The source thinks the price of the material lingers at high price level now.
"The price of the material is very high," laments the source. "And we have no choice but to purchase to maintain our normal production. However, we will not purchase the material in large quantities."
According to the source, they offer medium carbon ferromanganese 78%, C 1.5%max at RMB15,500/t (USD2,132/t) ex works now. The profit margin is too small due to the high cost of raw material.