FeMn Ferro Manganese Indian Export Price on April 22

Indian Ferromanganese Export Prices and What Sets Them

India is a reference seller for high-carbon ferromanganese in the seaborne market, and its FOB levels from Vizag and Haldia are watched as a benchmark for bulk steelmaking units in Asia, the Middle East and Europe. The table below is the April 22 assessment, expressed in US dollars per metric ton on an FOB Vizag / Haldia basis.

Reading the Two Grade Lines

The grade number is the nominal manganese content, so the 70# line covers material with a manganese analysis around the mid-seventies and the 75# line covers a higher manganese grade. The 90 USD/t step between the two lines is not linear in manganese content: it reflects the additional manganese units that must be carried through smelting, the extra ore consumption per tonne of alloy, and the narrower band of ores that can deliver the higher analysis at an acceptable phosphorus level. For a steel shop, the arithmetic that decides between the two grades is manganese recovery versus unit cost. A higher manganese grade delivers more manganese per tonne of alloy charged and yields less slag, but it only pays when the furnace is manganese-limited rather than cost-limited; on long-run commodity steel the 70# line usually wins on cost per manganese unit, while the 75# line is chosen where the charge balance cannot absorb the extra carbon and slag volume of a lower-grade alloy.

Manganese Minerals Behind the Alloy

Ferromanganese is a manufactured alloy, but its chemistry is inherited from manganese ores and the iron source blended with them. The table below lists the manganese minerals most often encountered in smelting ore blends.

Iron is added as hematite or magnetite ore, or adjusted with steel scrap and pig iron to reach the target iron balance. Silica in the ore is fluxed with limestone and removed as slag, while phosphorus and sulphur are the two elements that must be held down: they enter through the ore and the coke and cannot be removed economically once they are in the metal, so ore selection is effectively a phosphorus and sulphur management exercise.

Standards and Grade Control

Ferromanganese purchased for steelmaking is specified against recognised grade frameworks rather than a single chemistry. ASTM A99, the standard specification for ferromanganese, covers a family of grades defined by manganese, carbon, silicon, phosphorus and sulphur limits, spanning high-carbon through low-carbon material. GB/T 3795, the Chinese ferromanganese standard, follows the same logic and classifies the alloy into high-carbon, medium-carbon and low-carbon classes with grades designated by manganese and carbon content. In commercial practice the contract will quote the standard, the grade, the size band and the carbon ceiling, and the certificate of analysis is checked against those four items. Carbon is the specification that decides which class applies: high-carbon grades carry a carbon ceiling in the high single digits and are used for bulk deoxidation and alloying, while medium and low-carbon grades serve steel where carbon pick-up has to be restricted.

Logistics and Quality Items in an FOB Contract

Standard export sizes for high-carbon ferromanganese are the 10-50 mm and 50-100 mm crushed bands, with fines screened out because they are lost to dust and to reoxidation during handling. Packing is normally 1 MT bulk bags for containerised parcels and bulk for breakbulk or handysize cargoes. In an FOB sale the buyer controls the vessel nomination, so the practical risk items are the free time allowed for loading, the moisture allowance at the weighbridge, and the sampling protocol. An independent surveyor sampling at the loading port, with a sealed retention sample held by both parties, resolves essentially all disputes over manganese content and size distribution without touching the cargo.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Why is the 75# grade priced about 90 USD/t above the 70# grade?
A: The higher manganese analysis requires more ore and more furnace energy per tonne of alloy, and only a narrower range of low-phosphorus ore blends can deliver it, so the cost step is larger than the manganese difference alone suggests.

Q: Which standard covers ferromanganese grades?
A: ASTM A99 defines ferromanganese grades through manganese, carbon, silicon, phosphorus and sulphur limits, and GB/T 3795 classifies the alloy into high-carbon, medium-carbon and low-carbon classes designated by manganese and carbon content.

Q: Is ferromanganese a mined or a manufactured product?
A: It is manufactured. Manganese ore such as pyrolusite, hausmannite or rhodochrosite is smelted together with an iron source, normally hematite or magnetite ore and scrap, in a reduction furnace.

Q: Which elements are hardest to control in ferromanganese?
A: Phosphorus and sulphur. Both enter with the ore and the reductant and cannot be removed economically from the finished metal, so the ore blend is selected around their levels.

Q: What sizes are normally exported?
A: High-carbon ferromanganese is typically shipped in 10-50 mm and 50-100 mm crushed bands, in 1 MT bulk bags for container cargo or in bulk for larger parcels.

Q: Are the prices in this table offers?
A: No. They are a single-session FOB reference assessment for that date and are used for budgeting and tender comparison, not as a firm offer.