India: Bids rise in Sandur's manganese ore auction from Karnataka

• 55% of auctioned quantity receives bids
  
  
• Imported manganese ore prices rise
  
  

Sandur Manganese & Iron Ores Ltd (SMIORE) conducted an auction for around 40,320 t (tonnes) of manganese ore (Mn: 20-35%, size: 10 to 100mm) on 30 April 2024. According to sources, around 22,170 t (55% of the offered quantity) were booked, while around 18,150 t remained unsold, as per data compiled with BigMint.

Key takeaways:

Bids Vs base price, moderately up: It was noticed that there was an overall premium of 17% in bid prices when compared to base prices.

• For instance, manganese ore (Mn: 20-22%) were set at the base prices of INR 3,000/t ($36/t), and the bidding ended at stable margins of INR 3,000/t ($36/t).
  
  
• While another grade of manganese ore (Mn: 32-34%) had its base price at around INR 9,330/t ($112/t) which ended at a bid price at around INR 10,900/t ($131/t), up by 17% (INR 1,570/t ($19/t)).
  
  
• Likewise other higher grades of manganese ore (Mn: 34-35%) witnessed an uptick over the base price (INR 10,400/t) and bids fetched were at INR 11,535/t, up by 11% (INR 1,135/t ($14/t)).
  
  

Bids rise m-o-m: Auction results for 12 April, 2024 bid prices were recorded for manganese ore (Mn: 28-30%) at INR 7,730/t ($93/t), while in 30 April 2024 bids received were at INR 9,421/t ($113/t), up by 22% to INR 1,691/t ($20/t).

Notably, the key reason for this active participation in the auction could be the hike in the imported manganese ore prices and MOIL's recent hike of prices of high-grade offers by 40%, and low-grade by 25% m-o-m for May deliveries.