Environmental control has no effect on European antimony market

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 4 Jul 07 – When Hunan government closed many antimony mines and smelters for environmental control, European market had not been affected due to the weak demand.
A major European market participant told Asian Metal that he had not yet seen any change in the European market and also the offers made from the Chinese suppliers. According to him, the quotation from Chinese are still in the range of USD5,000-5,100/t CIF Rotterdam for 99.65%min standard grade two antimony ingot.
“European market is very quiet now,”the source claimed that there is almost no demand of antimony ingot or antimony trioxide due to two reasons. First, the summer is the general slow season of the year, and second, Chinese government had cancelled the export rebate for antimony trioxide. “Consumers do not want to accept higher price, and they are waiting for lower prices.”
Because of the slow demand, the source thinks the missing material from China will not affect the current slow market. Moreover, “there is a lot of material in Rotterdam warehouse.”
A UK trader told Asian Metal that the lowest offer he received for 99.65%min low bismuth antimony ingot was at USD5,150/t CIF Rotterdam, and the offer was received last week. “Market is quite quiet; there is no demand and no offer so far this week.”
A Belgium trader read about the new environmental control in Hunan province and he thinks world market will be affected as Hunan produces around 40% antimony in Chinese. However, the effect will only reflected in the market if the productions will be halt for a long time and when Europeans are back from holidays.