Key facts
On Thursday, silico-manganese futures strengthened in volatile trading, with the main contract closing at 5,676 yuan/tonne, up 1% from the previous session, while open interest fell by 43,321 lots to 406,600 lots. On the news front, a large steel mill in Hebei issued its August silico-manganese tender announcement, with total tender volume of 21,100 tonnes and an inquiry price of 5,800 yuan/tonne, down 150 yuan/tonne from July's pricing and below market expectations. On fundamentals, manganese ore prices have not yet stabilized, with Tianjin Port manganese ore prices down 0.3-0.5 yuan per tonne unit week-on-week, weakening cost-side support.
Inventory and logistics
On the supply side, weekly silico-manganese output has fallen for five consecutive weeks, with July total output of 764,000 tonnes, down 30,000 tonnes month-on-month. On the demand side, steel mills' silico-manganese demand remains low, and August mainstream tender purchase prices fell about 50 yuan/tonne month-on-month. As for inventories, as of Jul 31, inventories at 63 sample enterprises stood at 452,200 tonnes, up 3.19% month-on-month and up about 288,200 tonnes year-on-year, continuously setting new highs for the corresponding period in recent years.