Asian Metal visits MMK Shanghai Office, Shanghai Hardware Minerals and Sino Metal (Shanghai)

Frank Chen, manganese market analyst of Asian Metal visited MMK (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., Shanghai Hardware Minerals Import & Export Co., Ltd. and Sino Metal (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. during October 23-24th, and was welcomed by the three enterprises.

On the afternoon of October 23th, Asian Metal visited MMK, which is one of the three largest steel groups in Russia, importing raw materials like refractories, ferroalloy and manganese lump from China, with steady demand of 1,000tpm for the last one. Mr. Sergey Kolesnichenko, the chief delegate in China introduced that their Shanghai Office has got efficient contacts with many Chinese manganese lump suppliers since it was established in August, and they will devote themselves to selecting superior suppliers for long-term and steady supply for raw materials. Meanwhile, Mr. Sergey spoke highly of metal information provided by Asian Metal and said that they will certainly attend the coming 3rd Selenium-Manganese Forum, which is going to be held by Asian Metal in late April 2015.

On the morning of October 24th, Asian Metal visited Shanghai Hardware Minerals Import & Export Co., Ltd., which used to be held by China Minmetals Group but belongs to Shanghai SASAC now, engaging in import & export of non-ferrous metals. But Mr. Wei Su, the business manager said that affected by some other suppliers’ exporting without VAT, they suffer price disadvantages on manganese metal exports, and are developing exports of other manganese products like manganese powder and manganese nitrogen.

On the afternoon of October 24th, Asian Metal visited Sino Metal (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and interviewed Mr. Kim Changil, the general manager. Mr. Changil believed that 2013 was the year of crisis for Chinese steel mills, and thanks to dropping prices of raw materials like iron ore, losses have been eased among some steel mills so far in 2014. As for Chinese manganese metal suppliers, they face greater financial pressure this year as a result of longer payment term from the steel mills. So it is vital for suppliers to maintain cooperation with good customers. In addition, Mr. Changil called on strikes on exporting manganese metals without VAT from related departments to ensure a healthy export environment for the materials.