Asian Metal visits Shandong Taishan Steel Group

Frank Chen, manganese market analyst of Asian Metal visited Shandong Taishan Steel Group on November 21th, and was welcomed by Yongke Liu, purchasing executive of stainless steel department, and Hui Liu, manganese flake purchasing manager.

According to Mr. Yongke Liu, the group has a total capacity of 4 million tons per year for steel products, among which stainless steel accounts for 22.5%. They purchased 1,500t of manganese flake per month in the first half of 2014, but the quantity has decreased to below 1,000tpm since July, as a result of weak demand from downstream industries. In addition, he believed that stainless steel market will not recover in China in H1 of 2015, taking the falling iron ore prices and oversupply in the market into consideration.