Metal Bulletin looks back at some of the major changes in the ferro-alloys markets over the course of 2017.
1. Silico-manganese futures prices dominated manganese ore price performance Silico-manganese futures prices, traded on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange, have been a leading influencer of manganese ore prices this year, creating unusual volatility as ore market participants respond in realtime, leading to rallies and crashes that initially follow, but often exceed, large swings in the exchange-traded futures prices. Daily silico-manganese trading volumes have increased exponentially since the contract was launched in August 2014. By May 2017, there were 33,962 users trading silico-manganese futures contracts, compared with 1,217 a year before. The trading volume of the silico-manganense January contract was 557,000 lots on December 5. 2. Glencore struck a major ore and alloy deal with Ferroglobe In November 2017, Glencore agreed to sell its European manganese alloy plants in France and Norway to Ferroglobe. The deal resulted in Ferroglobe more than doubling its manganese alloy production, as Glencore increased its marketing volumes with…
