South Africa: Manganese Ore Exports Increased By 31% M-o-M in Sep’19

South African Manganese Ore exports have hit record levels of over 1.8MnT in Sep’19. The country’s Manganese Ore exports were 1,819,213MT in Sep’19, taking the year-to-date Production at 14.99MnT which is 15% higher than the previous year.

70% of South African exports went to China in Sep’19, at 1.2MnT. China is the major importer for South African Carbonate ores with over two-thirds of the exports going to China. The growth in Shipments is noticed despite building up inventory in the Chinese Ports and the Oversupply of Manganese Alloys in the global market. After China, India and Malaysia are the two biggest importers of South African ores with 0.17MnT and 0.045MnT respectively.

South African exports increased by over 5% in the third quarter of CY2019, which was mainly due to the huge shipments made in July and Sep’19, the collective exports in the 3rd quarter stood at 5.3MnT. Chinese Imports showed improvement in exports in the third quarter by 8% as compared to the previous quarter. These shipments would reach to Chinese and Indian Market by November-December, by then the market is expected to stabilize and such free fall in the ore prices may also slow down. Prices of Manganese ores have gone down by 38% since July. Recently, the fall in Manganese Ore prices accelerated and is presently at bottom levels. Such fall has been largely blamed on Piled up stocks in the Chinese Ports and the oversupply of Manganese Alloys in China and India as well.

On the future outlook, the exports in October also may seem to go on the higher side as the prices were low during this period which made it a perfect period to book cargoes. The shipments for Nov-December deliveries will also be higher due to approaching winters and the pre-stocking for the spring festivals.