Antimony market jumps in China

Influenced by tight supply of raw materials, the antimony market firms and jumps early this week.

A Guangxi-based antimony smelter increased their offers for grade two antimony ingot from RMB39,500/t (USD5,758/t) ex works early last week to RMB41,000/t (USD5,977/t) ex works early this week, up by RMB1,500/t (USD219/t). The source revealed that the concluded price for low bismuth grade two antimony ingot is at RMB39,000/t (USD5,685/t) VAT excluded ex works up from RMB38,000-38,200/t (USD5,539-5,577/t) VAT excluded ex works early last week. The concluded price for high bismuth materials is at RMB38,000/t (USD5,539/t) VAT excluded ex works.

The smelter has concluded around 100 tons of antimony ingot at RMB40,000-41,000/t (USD5,830-5,977/t) in the first ten days of August. "Buyers only purchased 50-60 tons each time as they must be cautious when price is increasing."

They also increased quotations for antimony trioxide 99.5%min to RMB38,000/t (USD5,539/t) ex works early this week up from RMB36,500/t (USD5,320/t) ex works two weeks ago. The smelter would not increase their offers this week as they believe the price is relatively high and it will take some time for consumers to accept it. They believe that the market may continue to go up after the summer holiday when buyers come back to make purchases.

A Hunan-based smelter quoted RMB43,000/t (USD6,268/t) ex works early this week, up from RMB42,500/t (USD6,195/t) ex works last week, by RMB500/t. They have concluded deals at around RMB41,500/t (USD6,050/t) ex works in the beginning of August when prices have not reached to the current level.

The source also quoted USD6,500-6,600/t CIF Rotterdam early this week, up by USD100/t from USD6,400-6,500/t in the beginning of August. The source stated that they may not quote this week as they do not have enough materials to provide to the buyers.