China's domestic manganese ore market has indicated slight downticks for certain grades of ore in the past week. 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 in the range of $6.69/dmtu, while offers of South African lump ore of 38 percent Mn content are at $6.53/dmtu.
During the past week, the domestic manganese ore market in China has witnessed small decreases for some grades of ore, after domestic market prices had remained firm in previous weeks. Availability of supply has improved for certain grades of ore, while demand in northern China is somewhat better than in the south of the country. Australian miner BHP Billiton last week raised its manganese ore quotations for April, but the domestic manganese ore market was influenced more by the sluggishness of the downstream manganese alloy market and by overall low demand for manganese ore. For the coming week, it is believed that China's manganese ore market will mostly follow a stable trend, with some downward price corrections possible for certain grades of ore.