During April 23-24, the 3rd World Selenium & Manganese Forum was held by Asian Metal in Chongqing, China. The two-day event was sponsored by Chongqing Runji Group and received keynote speeches by 7 guests and specialists from home and abroad, including Zhengmao Zeng, Vice President of Hunan Tycoon Group, and Kolesnichenko Sergey, MMK Group’s Chief Delegate in China, etc. Followed was the discussion by Rong Tan, General Marketing Manager of CITIC Dameng Mining, Frank Arm, Head of Selenium Sales and Marketing of Retorte GmbH, and other guests on topics like “Whether the Global Manganese Flake Demand will Recover in H2 2015” and “Who would Benefit from China’s Export Refund Policy Effective from April”. In total, around 100 representatives from all over the world attended this event.
24 April, 8:50 The address of Degen Chen, President of Debang Chemistry Co. Ltd. declared the official opening of the forum.
And the first speaker, Zhengmao Zeng, Vice President of Hunan Tycoon Group, delivered his speech on “Cost Analysis of Electrolytic Manganese& Brief Introduction of Yunnan Tycoon Project”. According to Mr. Zeng, manganese flake market was about to end the chaotic industrial competition and to begin a contest of nip and tuck among larger enterprises, just like China’s entering from the “Spring and Autumn Period” into the “Three Kingdoms Period” in the ancient time. The scale effect and the advantageous production cost of larger enterprises will help strengthen the competitiveness of manganese flake products. After the speech, Mr. Zeng answered questions raised by other delegates about Tycoon’s project in Yunnan.
9:30, Kolesnichenko Sergey, MMK Group’s Chief Delegate in China, made a detailed introduction about their procurement mode transformation in the past year during his speech on “Strategy of Mn Suppliers Selection”. Mr. Sergey stressed that the status of MMK in Russia resembles that of Baosteel in China, serving as the industrial wind vane both in regard to production and purchasing. After the establishment of the Shanghai office in 2014, they have been in more direct touch with more Chinese manganese flake producers and have formed the habit of taking AM’s prices as reference in signing new contracts.
Following Mr. Sergey was Zewen Peng, Vice General Manager of Hunan Jufa Technology, who shared “Countermeasures and Suggestions for Chinese Selenium Market Development”. Mr. Peng analyzed the cost of selenium and selenium dioxide production and appealed for the establishment of basic selenium platform, the interaction of different metal trading platforms, and the sustainable development via a global perspective, intensive operation, and continuous industrial chain appreciation through standardized service.
After the tea break, Degen Chen, President of Debang Chemistry delivered a report in the title of “Analysis of Status Quo of Global Manganese Flake Industry – A Case Study of South African Company MMC”. Mr. Chen pointed out that the ideal annual capacity for Chinese manganese flake industry is 1,000,000tpy, and Chinese manganese plants should strengthen competitiveness by developing more advanced technology and raising the operation & management level, just like what MMC has done, rather than by expanding capacity based on abundant resource and favorable electricity prices.
And then came Frank Arm, Retorte GmbH’s Head of Selenium Sales and Marketing, who introduced “Selenium Production and Applications apart from the Manganese Production”. According to Mr. Arm, though more Chinese copper production has led to an uprising of selenium output, which is over 3,000tpy now and has surpassed the demand, more new application areas have been explored and found which have increased the consumption of selenium and those areas of potential consumption might also bring in more demand.
14:00 pm, Kim Changil, General Manager of Sino Metal (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. made the report on “Manganese Flake Market Review in 2014 and Prospect in 2015”. Mr. Kim thought that the overcapacity issue of manganese flake industry will remain severe this year and the demand can hardly see any improvement compared with 2014, and the producers will have even tighter capital circulation. In terms of the raw materials, he thought that more imported manganese ore will be used thanks to the ever-declining domestic manganese grade. Also, he expected the manganese flake prices to keep in low level in 2015.
Wenlong Yang, Marketing Director of Yunnan Copper Science & Technology Development Corporation, was the next speaker whose topic was “Selenium Portfolio Exploration amid Economic Transformation”. Mr. Yang said, selenium dioxide market got most of the demand from manganese flake production in the past decade, but the evolvement of the market itself and the change of relative technological products have squeezed out large portion of the profit and blocked its development now. He suggested producers and traders of both crude selenium and selenium dioxide to enhance cooperation and form effective alliance that focus on technical advancement and potential exploration and help regulating the market.
Finally, Rong Tan, General Marketing Manager of CITIC Dameng Mining Co., Ltd., Man Zhang, President of Chongqing Mengdu Industrial & Trade Co., Ltd., Frank Arm, Head of Selenium Sales and Marketing of Retorte GmbH, Wenlong Yang, Marketing Director of Yunnan Copper Science & Technology Development Corporation, Wu Liu, General Manager of Tianjin Jinjingcheng Trade Development Co., Ltd., Lifang Wu, General Manager of Guizhou Hengzhao Trade Co., Ltd., and Nong Kang, General Manager of Xiangtan Zhongxin New Material Co., Ltd. all shared their opinions in terms of the following topics: “Whether the Global Manganese Flake Demand will Recover in H2 2015”, “How will Manganese Ore and Electricity Prices Impact the Development Trend of Chinese Manganese Flake Industry”, “How is the Application Prospect of Manganese-related Products such as Manganese Briquette, Manganese Lump and Manganese Nitrogen”, “Who would Benefit from China’s Export Refund Policy for Selenium Effective from April”, “Who will Pay for the Oversupply of Selenium with Ever-increasing Output” and “Change or Not Change? How should Selenium Dioxide Suppliers React to the Sluggish Market”.
18:00, the Third World Selenium & Manganese Forum ended successfully under the support of sponsor Chongqing Runji Group and all the representatives on spot.
Asian Metal has successfully held a series of conferences and forums for a variety of metals over the years, which is indispensible to the support and cooperation from all the relative companies, and we are very grateful for that. We look forward to meeting you in the Fourth World Selenium & Manganese Forum!
