Antimony prices expected to rise after Chinese New Year

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 3 Feb 08 - The central Chinese province of Hunan, one of the most important antimony products production bases, has been pummeled by unrelenting snow and icy rains since the middle of January, forcing almost all the antimony ingot and trioxide smelters to close down. In view of the production interruption, participants believe that the price of antimony products will edge up after Chinese New Year.
An official from a Hunan-based antimony ingot smelter with an output of 200-300tpm halted production lately, and claimed that they would not sell before the Spring Festival. According to the source, almost all the antimony ingot smelters in the region have been forced to close down due to either power shortage or lack of raw materials.
"I don't think smelters would like to sell now. The price is bound to rise after the holiday as supply will be tightening with many smelters unable to resume in the short term," said the source.
The source revealed that many smelters have no stock on hand. Those who have small quantities of materials on hand have no intention of selling at the moment. "Some smelters were reluctant to sell at prices below RMB39,500/t (USD5,494/t) ex works two weeks ago. Judging from current market situation, I think the price will easily hit RMB41,000/t (USD5,563/t) ex works immediately after the holiday," the source stated, adding that they have stocked up over 100t of antimony ingot.
A Guangxi-based antimony ingot producer also holds the market will continue the upward trend after the Spring Festival, so ceased quoting early this week. "Although the traffic condition is better in Guangxi, we also want to hold back from quoting as we firmly believe the price will rise when we return to the market," said the source. The source thinks the antimony market has come to a standstill without any price indicator.
"Anyway, we won't sell any of our materials below RMB40,000/t (USD5,563/t) ex works," the source added.
Learning that the antimony price in European market has exceeded USD5,700/t in warehouse Rotterdam, the source thinks the price of as high as USD6,000/t would not be out of participants' expectation.