PERTH (miningweekly.com) – ASX-listed manganese-miner OM Holdings’ (OMH’s) production dropped by 5% to 174 712 t in the March quarter, compared with the 184 242 t during the December quarter.

However, production was up when compared with the March 2009 quarterly output of 94 492 t.

OMH produces mainly from its Bootu Creek manganese project, in the Northern Territory.

OMH said in a statement on Friday that quarterly production was below the forecasted production figure of 222 077 t, owing to severe wet season conditions experienced during January and February.

Quarterly production was also significantly affected by lower-yielding ore throughput, but this was moderately offset by an additional 10% increase in the tons processed.

The manganese miner said that production for the remainder of 2010 remained focused on the implementation of strategies relating to the availability of high-grade feed-stocks, higher yielding ore improvements and further process optimisation initiatives.

Although production was below the budgeted year-to-date figures, the production target remained at one-million tons for 2010.

MARKET OUTLOOK

OMH further reported that demand for high-grade seaborne manganese ore was expected to grow, as Chinese crude steel production reached 620-million tons during the year.

The selling price for China’s crude steel has also increased by up to 8%, and crude steel consumption is expected to grow by around 10% compared with 2009 demand.

Global steel production was also forecasted to grow by 9% to 1,2-billion tons during 2010, recovering to 2008 levels.

China was expected to represent close to 50% of global steel output.