Mining giant BHP Billiton has signalled that it will de-merge its aluminium, manganese and nickel operations, valued at up to $14bn (£8.3bn), in order to focus on its core business.

Major South African asset classes have failed to make the cut in BHP Billiton’s latest portfolio remake announcement

China Steel Corp (CSC, 中钢), the nation’s only integrated steel maker, plans to increase its investment in Malaysia-based Sakura Ferroalloys Sdn Bhd by US$13.87 million to replenish the latter’s working capital.

[Ferro-Alloys.com] In recent period, high carbon ferromanganese market remains flat as demand was slow and traders were observed declining their offers. In Raipur, Ferromanganese (70% Mn) is being traded at INR57,000/MT. Currently in Durgapur, ferromanganese 7...

[Ferro-Alloys.com] The movement tendency of silicon manganese in China already set clear in the wake of August tender of steelmakers. Given August is the trandtional slack season for steel, it seems that manganese alloys market tend to maintain underperformed.

[Ferro-Alloys.com] This week, imported manganes ore spot market in China still failed to maintain in good shape amid weak demand. Australian Mn46 lumps are currently maintained at RMB33-34/mtu and RMB33.5-34/mt for Mn48 sand ore.

According to our investigation, several reduction calcium factories were shut down for environmental reasons in Shanxi Province and they had not resumed

In Aug., the total capacity release of high FeNi in China was still low at 35-55%, while the recover sign started appearing and the optimistic prediction for FeNi market in Sep. increased.