European antimony market lifts

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 8 Feb 08 – From the middle of last week, European antimony market began to firm, and price went up from USD5,500-5,600/t in warehouse Rotterdam to currently USD5,750-5,850/t. Market participants hold that price will continue to firm for the rest of February.
A European trader disclosed to Asian Metal that there is no quotation from the Chinese suppliers, so he had nothing to report on the purchasing side. However, he said there was an antimony consumer in the market now and looking for several containers. "I sold 50t grade zero antimony ingot at USD5,720/t in warehouse Rotterdam at the beginning of last week before the price went up, and one cannot find such cheap price again, especially for the good grade," the source claimed that the consumer he sold the material to has a very close relationship.
He revealed that there is another Greek consumer asking for a batch of grade one material, and the deal will be concluded by the end of the week; he thinks the concluded price would be above USD5,800/t in warehouse Rotterdam.
Because of the limited supply currently, there is little material in warehouse Rotterdam, the source hold that price will continue to go up in the coming two to three weeks, but once the weather gets back to normal, price will fall back to around USD5,700/t.
An Asian trader who sells antimony ingot to Europe reported that he had sold a batch of 99.65%min standard grade two antimony ingot at close to USD5,750/t in warehouse Rotterdam. He confirmed that it is difficult to get an offer from China because most Chinese suppliers are on holidays or had stopped productions due to the massive snow in Hunan areas.
He disclosed that demand remains stable as the price is moving up: “The consumers are very careful when they buy material, and they rather want to wait when price is moving up and hope weak demand will bring the price down again.” The trader thinks price of antimony ingot may start to fall in late March, when new material arrives Europe.