Manganese is used in metallurgical industries in the form of ferro manganese. Ferro manganese contains about 80% Mn and 20% Fe. Generally ferro manganese is produced in blast furnace or an electric furnace. The high carbon ferromanganese (7.5% C, 74 80 % Mn & balance Fe) is the most important grade of ferromanganese Ferrochrome contains chromium as a major alloying element. With low carbon content, high chromium steels (Cr.12%) are corrosion resistant. With high carbon content, chromium raises the abrasion and wear resistance. Ferro Chrome is an alloy of chromium and iron containing between 50% and 70% chromium. The ferrochrome is produced by electric arc melting of chromites and chromium ore. Uses & Applications Low carbon Ferro manganese is widely used in the manufacturing of tool steels, alloys steel & structural steels. Ferromanganese is widely used in the manufacture of tool steels (up to 0.4% Mn) and structural steel (up to 0.6% Mn) and also of special steels with a high manganese content (up to 12 to 14%) Mn), as well as an alloying addition. Silcomanganese ferro alloy is used as a blocking agent to prevent the reaction of carbon & oxygen in Steel. Ferro Chrome with chrome content below 56% is known as charge chrome and produced from a chrome containing ore with a lower chrome content. Alternatively, High Carbon Ferro Chrome produced from higher grade ore, is more commonly used in specialist applications such as engineering steels. Low carbon Ferro Chrome is used during steel production to correct chrome percentages, without causing undesirable variations in the carbon or trace element percentages. Market Survey Ferro alloy production is very power intensive, forming between 40 and 70 per cent of the total production cost. Manganese alloy is the largest produced ferro alloy in the world with a share of about 41% of the global production of ferro alloys. Manganese is an essential requisite for iron and steel production owing to its capability for sulphur fixing, de oxidizing and good alloying properties. Production of manganese ferro alloys is dominated by China, accounting for nearly half of worldwide production from a combination of domestic low grade manganese ores and imported high grade ores. The steel industry also requires manganese alloys with less carbon than that contained in standard ferromanganese. India is exporting ferromanganese ferrosilicon & other bulk and noble alloys to various countries like FR Germany, France, Japan, Columbia, Dominican Rep, Italy, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden, U.K., U.S.A. and others. The proposals are for an increase in import duties for all Ferro Alloys from 5% to 7.5% excluding Ferro Nickel and the removal of duties on raw materials and ores used in the production of Ferro Alloys. Current duties for imported raw materials range from 2.5% to 7.5%. There is a very good scope for this product and it is the appropriate time for new entrepreneurs to venture into this field. Few Indian Major Players are as under:to Aarti Steels Ltd. Adhunik Metaliks Ltd. Alok Ferro Alloys Ltd. Andhra Ferro Alloys Ltd. Bhaskar Shrachi Alloys Ltd. Bishwanath Ferro Alloys Ltd. Castron Technologies Ltd. Essel Mining & Inds. Ltd. Facor Alloys Ltd. Hindustan Ferro & Inds. Ltd. Hira Ferro Alloys Ltd. Idcol Ferro Chrome & Alloys Ltd. Jeypore Sugar Co. Ltd. M O I L Ltd. Maharashtra Elektrosmelt Ltd. Monnet Industries Ltd. Nagpur Power & Inds. Ltd. Natural Sugar & Allied Inds. Ltd. Nava Bharat Ventures Ltd. Orde Industries Ltd. R G Foundry Forge Ltd. Rohit Ferro Tech Ltd. S A L Steel Ltd. S K M Steels Ltd. Sarda Energy & Minerals Ltd. Shri Girija Smelters Ltd. Shyam Ferro Alloys Ltd. Sova Ispat Alloys (Mega Projects) Ltd. Sova Ispat Alloys Ltd. Srinivasa Ferro Alloys Ltd. T S Alloys Ltd. Tata Steel Ltd. Universal Ferro & Allied Chemicals Ltd. V B C Ferro Alloys Ltd. Visa Steel Ltd.