Antimony price firm in Asian market

Antimony ingot and antimony trioxide prices remain firm in Asian market. Participants believe that antimony products prices will continue to hold steady or climb up slightly in the following few weeks owing to tight supply and expected warming demand.
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A South Korean trader reported to Asian Metal that prices of both antimony ingot and antimony trioxide remain firm on tight supply. Although demand is still not strong, it is much better than it was in the same period of last year. Additionally, not much material is coming from China because many producers are just back from the Chinese New Year holiday.
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The source usually trade one container of antimony ingot every month and also deals in antimony trioxide on request. "We were buying one container of antimony ingot 99.65%min for a consumer in alloy industry late February and received an offer of USD6,400/t CIF Busan for the material at that time, but unfortunately, we lost the deal. It is still not easy to get an offer of antimony ingot now because we were told that supply in China is still very tight," said the source, adding that offers he learnt in the market are USD30-50/t higher than those two weeks ago. "We know it very well that this cheap material is coming from some Hong Kong or Vietnam who trade smuggled material, because some other Chinese traders claimed that they would suffer a loss if they sell at below USD6,900/t FOB China," said the source.
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A Japanese trader confirmed the wide-ranged offers of antimony ingot. Some major Chinese suppliers offered as high as USD7,000/t FOB China while deals are being reported at USD6,500-6,600/t CIF Japan for the material. Due to the difficulty in dealing in antimony ingot business, the source is concentrating in antimony trioxide sales. According to the source, offers for antimony trioxide 99.5%min are in a range of USD6,000-6,300/t CIF Japan. "The demand is not good now because it is the end of the financial year, but I think we will see more buying from April," said the source, predicting that antimony ingot and antimony trioxide price will keep firm in the short term.
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An Indonesia buyer who uses 10tpm of antimony trioxide for chemicals production reported an increase in offer. The source revealed that the last purchase was concluded at around USD6,200/t CIF Jakarta for February shipment but offers for April shipmen are around USD200/t higher. The source is confused about the price increase because demand has not changed. "It is a seller's market, anyway," said the source.