European antimony price firms

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 18 Sep 07 – Having been offered at higher prices, antimony ingot in Europe in selling in the range of USD5,500-5,600/t in warehouse Rotterdam for standard grade two antimony ingot.
A UK trader revealed to Asian Metal that the offers he received for grade two antimony ingot with bismuth content lower than 100ppm in were in the range of USD5,600-5,700/t CIF Rotterdam, and the material in warehouse was offered at about the same price. Two weeks ago, the price for the same material would be about USD100/t cheaper.
“The price is going up, but mainly by the actions of the Chinese suppliers,” said the trader, who sees that market is still very quiet that consumers are holding back from purchasing. “We are hoping more activities will come in the following weeks,” added the source.
A Dutch trader finds it is hard to find the regular 99.65%min antimony ingot at below USD5,500/t in warehouse Rotterdam, and his customers are not accepting such high prices. He had not sold any antimony in September yet.
The source takes that some consumers made some replacement when the price was around USD5,200-5,250/t in warehouse Rotterdam, and the market would be more active now if the price remained at the price range.
As end-users are not interested to buy at high prices, the source holds that price will start to drop in the next 4-6 weeks. “The core problem is that the Chinese suppliers hold the price together. If one of them start to fall, then we will see price take a dive again,” the trader said.