China: Powerful demand to further lift electrolytic manganese price up

Electrolytic manganese price remains at high level and further inches
up in the first week of March. The market runs steadily with powerful
demand and tightened supply. Ex-work price for electrolytic manganese
in main producing areas has all exceeded RMB12,200/mt, while quoted
price in East regions arrived at around RMB13,000/mt.

Tightened supply in raw materials is still the main trouble
electrolytic manganese producers are facing. Ferro Alloys reports that
a producer in Guangxi could hardly work due to tightened supply in
manganese ore and electricity power.

In export aspect, an exporter in Hunan told Ferro Alloys that their
quoted price of electrolytic manganese flakes 99.7% is over
USD2,000/mt FOB, but transaction is slim. They have been receiving
many inquiries from foreign traders, but the high quoted price hold
buyers back. According to them, though high price is benefit for
exporters, they still feel anxious when there's few contract.

As mentioned in Monthly Comment on Electrolytic Manganese Market in
Feb 2007, one of the main reasons for the recent well performance of
the market is strong demand in export market and tightened supply, and
the situation could be changed in the coming two months if export
market became slim and domestic productions resumed. However, since
now foreign purchasers are resistant to accept high quoted price from
China's exporters, powerful demand is expected to last for a longer
time, which is a piece of good news for the whole industry. It is
predictable that electrolytic manganese market will keep the upward
trend, and price is not likely to slip in the near future.