Silico manganese, also known as ferro silicon manganese, is the most widely used ferroalloy in steelmaking. Its main use is as deoxidizer and alloying agent in steelmaking to eliminate excessive oxygen and sulfur in molten steel and improve the quality and performance of steel. In recent years, because manganese silicon alloy can not only deoxidize, but also increase the manganese content in steel and improve the strength of steel, the proportion of manganese silicon alloy used as deoxidizer is gradually higher than that of ferrosilicon.
In ferroalloy production enterprises, the silicon manganese alloy used for steelmaking is usually called commercial silicon manganese alloy, the silicon manganese alloy used for smelting low-carbon iron is called self use silicon manganese alloy, and the silicon manganese alloy used for smelting metal is called high silicon silicon manganese alloy.
Ferro Silico Manganese Production
According to the smelting equipment, operation method, and heat source used, it can be roughly divided into the electric furnace method, aluminothermic method, and others. The electric furnace method is the main method to produce ferroalloy, and its output accounts for about 80% of the total ferroalloy output. The main equipment used is the electric furnace.
Silicon Manganese Production Cost
The production cost of manganese silicon alloy is mainly composed of manganese ore, electricity and coke, of which manganese ore accounts for about 60%, electricity charge is about 20% – 25%, and coke is about 10% – 15%.
Raw material: manganese ore
Manganese ore reserves are mainly concentrated in South Africa, Mozambique, Australia, Russia, Myanmar, Gabon and other countries. Manganese ores in China are produced in Liaoning, Hunan, Sichuan, Guangxi and other regions. However, because of the low grade, a large number of high-grade manganese ores need to be imported from abroad every year.
The grade of furnace manganese ore should be more than 30%, and domestic manganese ores are poor. Some rich manganese ores (more than 30%) need to be imported mainly from Brazil, Gabon, Australia and other countries. According to incomplete statistics, for every 1% reduction in manganese ore grade, the power consumption of silicon manganese alloy will increase by 135KWh. Increasing the grade of manganese ore as much as possible is an important means to improve manganese recovery, reduce power consumption and improve other indicators.
Requirements for silica: SiO2>97%, P2O5<0.02%, particle size 10-40mm, without soil and sundries.
Requirements for coke: fixed carbon>84%, ash<14%, coke particle size, generally 3-13mm for medium and small electric furnaces, and 5-25mm for large electric furnaces.
Manganese silicon alloy is divided into 8 grades according to the content of manganese, silicon and impurities, and its chemical composition is as follows:
Silicon Manganese Specification
Silicon Manganese Price
International manganese price. Since 2003, the rapid development of the domestic steel industry has promoted the demand for manganese alloys, leading to a sharp increase in China’s manganese ore imports. In recent years, China’s manganese ore imports account for about 1/3 of the total demand. Therefore, international manganese ore price fluctuations have an important impact on domestic manganese silicon prices.
Transportation costs. China’s ferrosilicon and manganese silicon are mainly concentrated in the northwest and southwest regions, and the steel industry is mainly distributed in North China and East China. The difference between the place of origin and the place of consumption leads to the high transportation cost of ferroalloy. Ferroalloys in some western provinces can be transported by railway, with relatively low cost; Road transport costs are high. Take Jiangsu as an example: at present, the transportation of ferrosilicon from Ningxia to Jiangsu is mainly by automobile, and the transportation cost per ton is about 500 yuan/ton. Ferroalloys in Inner Mongolia are also mainly transported by automobile. In addition, ferroalloy production enterprises in regions with hydropower as the energy source have obvious seasonal characteristics and uneven distribution of output throughout the year, which also aggravates the difficulty and cost of transportation. In some ferroalloy enterprises in the north, the cold weather in winter will also increase transportation costs.
Electricity price. Ferroalloy is a high energy consumption (electricity) industry, and electricity accounts for a relatively high proportion of its cost. With the worldwide energy consumption and shortage, the impact of power cost on ferroalloy industry will be greater and greater. Therefore, the price of ferroalloy will fluctuate with the change of electric power price (mainly national regulation, wet and dry seasons, etc.).
Of course, the other is the national macro policy. Although this small variety has just been launched for several years, the price fluctuation is relatively small in some cases. However, as long as the steel industry does not hit a recent low, the price of silicon manganese will also rise.
