Manganese production decreases further due to power restriction in South China

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 9 Dec 09 - Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of PRC has already announced the goal of elimination of backward ferroalloy production capacity in 2009 with electrolytic manganese metal included. Guizhou is on the top of the list with an eliminate of 370.4 thousand tons of ferroalloy capacity, Hunan the second with 269 thousand tons, and Guangxi will have to eliminate 166 thousand tons on the third.
Till the moment, Guizhou already has carried out restriction of power supply to manganese smelters while Hunan and Guixi are believed to follow soon. After the hit by higher power tariff, the decreasing supply would also result in lower production of manganese metal. Though purchasing from the downstream stainless steel mills has been stable which may not help to push up manganese price, the tightening supply of electrolytic manganese metal may push the suppliers to increase their offers further in some areas.