In relation to the gigantic earthquake disaster occurred on March 11th 2011 in the East Japan, it was marked to ascertain the production activities of manganese ferroalloys as one plant has been located in Kanto area and the concrete figures produced in Japan for the first quarter (January to March) of 2011 were recently known as high carbon ferromanganese: 114,283 tonnes, up by 11.4% YoY and silico manganese: 20,875 tonnes, up by 8.1% YoY but diluted by a reduction in the production at the Kashima plant of Chuo Denki Kogyo.

Reacting to this natural disaster occurred on March 11th 2011, the Kashima plant of Chuo Denki Kogyo immediately suspended to operate all of their facilities and announced to ensure such utilities as electricity, industrial water, and so on and to endeavor their resumption of all operations at the earliest possible time. Consequently, the Kashima plant resumed on the March 22nd 2011 to operate one electric furnace for production of manganese ferroalloys out of two furnaces and also restarted on March 25th 2011 to operate the remaining one electric furnace.

The reason, why both quantities of high carbon ferromanganese and silico manganese produced in Japan for January to March quarter of 2011 had increased compared with those for the same quarter of 2010, was due to the fact that only the Kashima plant of Chuo Denki Kogyo has existed in the East Japan and the damages arisen from the earthquake disaster have been restricted for the ferroalloy industry of Japan.

When the quantities of manganese ferro-alloys produced in Japan for January to March quarter of 2011 are compared with those for the same quarter of 2010, the results are a follows:

High carbon ferromanganese
Nippon Denko: 120.8%
Chuo Denki Kogyo: 143.6%
Mizushima Ferroalloy: 97.3%
Kobe Steel: 86.8%
Total: 111.4%

Silico manganese
Nippon Denko: 162.0%
Chuo Denki Kogyo: 39.1%
Kobe Steel: 108.1%
Total: 108.1%

• [Editor:editor]