A significant 200% surge in manganese ore prices in the last 3-4 months has sent alarm bells ringing across the domestic ferroalloys sector. The latter is a key input for steel makers but 70% of the industry has become import dependent as few new mines have come up in the recent past. The development has worried steel companies, too, since each tonne of steel contains about 6 kg of manganese alloys. To add to the worries, coke prices have also surged by 80% in the same period. To add to the worries, coke prices have also surged by 80% in the same period. The proposed imposition of an anti-dumping duty of $25 tonne on coke is likely to aggravate the situation further.
However, in the face of soaring input costs, the price of Ferroalloys has increased by only around 30%. This has led to a situation where a number of smaller Ferroalloys units have either close down or are on the verge of being shut down with fears of sizeable job losses of nearly a few lakhs. With an installed capacity of 3.5 million tonnes, manganese alloys industry is currently operating at 70% capacity. While domestic sales are 1.5 million tonnes, the exports amount to around one million tonnes.
The industry is encountering large-scale imports of manganese alloys from Malaysia, which has emerged as a big challenge with low power cost allowing it to set up large capacity .“Under the Free Trade Agreement (FTA), Malaysia’s products have been coming in as duty-free, making it difficult for Indian producers to compete in the local market. We would urge the government to consider imposing safeguard duty on it,“ S C Agarwalla, managing director, Maithon Alloys said. The firm, one of the larger ..
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