China's domestic manganese ore market was more or less stable in the past week, but with slight downticks in prices observed for certain grades of ore. The mainstream quotations of Australian lump ore with 46 percent Mn content currently stand at $7.16-7.32/dmtu at China's Tianjin port, while offers of lump ore of 48 percent Mn content are at $7.32/dmtu. Also at Tianjin port, quotations for 44 percent grade Mn ore from Gabon are at $6.69/dmtu, while offers of South African lump ore of 38 percent Mn content are at $6.37/dmtu.
Inventory levels have not changed much in the Chinese manganese ore market in the past week, while demand in northern China is still higher than in the south. With the influence of the sluggish domestic manganese alloy market, China's manganese ore market continues to show some signs of softness. However, in the meantime, Australian miner BHP Billiton has raised it manganese ore quotations for May by $0.05, though it is thought that the Chinese market will hardly accept this increase. It is believed that the trend of the Chinese manganese ore market will continue to vary between stability and slight decrease in the coming week.