Metals Market Review

Manganese and Alloys

The trend of manganese demand, domestically and globally, will continue to follow closely that of steel production. Although some nonmetallurgical components of manganese demand may experience higher growth rates than for steel production, especially batteries, this will have only a minor effect on overall manganese demand. For the past decade, U.S. apparent consumption of manganese has been within roughly plus or minus 10% of about 660,000 tons of contained manganese. This largely has been a consequence of and close to the degree of variation in domestic steel production during the same period. In this interval, manganese demand, which is presented as apparent consumption in table 1, generally has shown an increasing trend as has the level of activity in the steel industry. Manganese apparent consumption has not traced steel production precisely possibly because of the influence of unmeasured changes in stocks of manganese materials, such as those of importers. The effect of this may outweigh changes in demand by steelmakers. Balancing positive and negative indications suggests that U.S. apparent consumption of manganese during the remainder of the 1990's will still be not far from 660,000 tons of contained manganese. Domestic steel output, the main determinant of manganese demand, is projected to decline slightly in 1996-2000, according to forecasts of the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) and others that were publicized in 1995. However, the trend in domestic steel production during this midterm actually may turn out more favorably, considering the uncertainty of such factors as developments in steel foreign trade and the effect of additional domestic capacity coming on-stream in the near term. The outlook for a stable manganese demand also assumes no significant change in manganese unit consumption in steelmaking. Present indications continue to be for no change or perhaps slight further decrease. The majority of U.S. demand for manganese units will be met by imports.