Volatile manganese markets reviewed by a market leader

Asian Metal: Hello Arnaud, thanks for speaking with me. Firstly, please can you give a brief into to your company?

Eramet-Comilog is part of the Eramet group. We specialise in producing manganese products, from Manganese ore to Manganese alloys and flakes. We sell globally, with a specialization in refined (low carbon) Silico and Ferro Manganese.

Asian Metal: Why did you decide to focus your attention toward refined manganese alloys?

We produce a range of manganese alloys in our plants in Norway, France, US and Gabon. In order to fill the need of our customers in the steel industry and their request for low carbon Mn alloys, especially for steel grade dedicated to the Automotive industry, we developed specific processes to manufacture LC SiMn, MC FeMn and LC FeMn. We are now a leader in the field of refined Manganese alloys and are able to offer the full range of Manganese alloys to our customers. To further complete our product range, we also started to produce Mn flakes near our Mn mine in Gabon.

Asian Metal: Please can you explain more about Eramet’s activity in Gabon?

In Gabon we produce manganese ore of 44% purity, SiMn and Mn flakes near the city of Moanda, in the middle of the country. We transport the products through the railway line that we operate to our port and then ship the material everywhere in the world. The Mn ore that we produce is used in our own Mn alloys plants as well as sold to external customers in China and other countries.

Asian Metal: The price of manganese ore has been exposed to rapid changes in recent months, what is your analysis on this?

Manganese indeed experienced strong prices changes in 2016 similar to several other commodities like cooking coal, chromium… End of 2015 prices of Mn ore reached such a low level that it triggered a very strong supply reaction, with closure or stoppage of mines. From Q2’2016 the demand from the Steel industry proved to be better than expected so the two effects combined with some logistic issues in South Africa and amplification by traders brought Mn ore prices from below 2US$/dmtu beginning of 2016 to more than 9US$/dmtu end of 2016. Since the beginning of 2017 we start to see some adjustment of Mn ore prices.

Asian Metal: Does Eramet have any other activities aside from manganese products?

Eramet as a whole has a broad range of activities, not just in manganese products. We also work in Nickel, which helps us contribute to the stainless steel market and in special alloys and steel, mostly for the Aerospace industry. We are also developing our activities in Zircon and Titanium dioxide and a project for Lithium.

Asian Metal: Now that the manganese ore market is showing a little more stability, what is your expectation for this market?

Despite the noted volatility in this market, I am hoping for prices to show some stability. A lot depends on the situation in China of course.

Asian Metal: You mentioned you have some growing activity in manganese flake, can you tell us more about this?

This is a developing market for us and we hope to scale this up. We are selling some material into Europe but hope to grow this further and expand into other markets.

Asian Metal: Thanks so much for speaking with us and we hope to speak again soon.

No problem, my pleasure.