Ferro-alloys.com:South Korean steel producer Pohang Iron & Steel increased its tender price to supplement the purchase of manganese flakes in response to the continuous rise in spot prices in the past few weeks.

POSCO yesterday raised the tender price of approximately 2,000 tons of manganese flakes from the US$1,999/ton sent in mid-December to US$2,443-2,463/ton CIF Korea’s January delivery port.

The company only plans to buy 2,622 tons of flakes, but only 2,000 tons of flakes, because many producers withheld raw materials from sales in anticipation of recent price increases.

Pohang Steel received only about 1,000 tons of materials on December 16, and it plans to buy 5,244 tons of materials delivered in one month.

POSCO usually imports 3,500-5,000 tons/month of manganese flakes from China, making it one of the largest users of flakes outside of China.

The spot price has increased by 10.8% since the beginning of January, among which the price range of 99.7% of manganese flakes is 15,300-15,500 yuan/ton, which is an increase of 300 yuan/ton from January 11 and 500 yuan/ton from January 7. Ton.

According to the increase in domestic prices, today's export price is US$2,400-2,500 per ton, which is higher than US$2,350-2,400 on January 11 and US$2,280-2,330 on January 7.

According to market participants, the major producers of the Manganese Industry Alliance headed by China's largest smelter Ning Tianyuan held a meeting on January 9 and agreed to suspend production for 60 days in 2021 under mutual supervision to support prices. This encourages manufacturers to increase prices.

• [Editor:zhaozihao]