antimony market keeps stable

In the last few weeks of 2007, antimony market had been quiet with prices slipping to around USD5,500/t in warehouse Rotterdam and USD5,450/t CIF Rotterdam. This week is the first week of 2008, most consumers are not back to market right now, and they are expected to be active from next week.
Market participants reported that offers from Chinese suppliers continued to decrease and they think price will rebound after the Chinese New Year.
A Belgium trader told Asian Metal that the year of 2008 is another year to see high prices, not only antimony, but some other metals too. According to him, he received several inquiries already in the last two days, and he offered 99.65%min standard grade two antimony ingot in the range of USD5,500-5,600/t in warehouse Rotterdam.
The source revealed that he received some low offers from the Chinese suppliers, and the lowest was around USD5,300/t CIF Rotterdam for the standard grade two material. "Price is likely to drop a little more before the Chinese New Year, and rebounds after Chinese producers come back from the long holiday."
Another trader had not done anything about antimony in the last several weeks as consumers had withdrawn from the market for holidays. He holds that most consumers do not have stocks at the moment, and they will come to market right after they get back to work next week.
looking into the year 2008, he thinks that market is going to be stable as it was in year 2007, and price will continue to fluctuate in the range of USD5,200-5,700/t in warehouse Rotterdam.