More inquires in antimony export market

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 15 May 08 – As the antimony ingot is in tight supply in the international market, Chinese suppliers received more inquires from overseas buyers. However, licensed exporters have to pay 5% export tax on antimony ingot and the domestic antimony price has risen to RMB41,500-42,000/t ex works, so they found it hard to conduct export business.
A small-scaled Guangdong-based trader who mainly exports antimony trioxide reported that more inquiries for antimony ingot have been received during the past two weeks. “It seems that all European buyers are in need of antimony ingot,” said the source. However, the source revealed that they cannot cover the cost if they export antimony ingot at USD6,500/t CIF Rotterdam with the purchase price of RMB42,000/t (USD6,000/t) delivered to ports.
“Some European buyers claimed that they could obtain antimony ingot at USD6,300-6,350/t CIF Rotterdam, but I’m sure the material was not shipped out of China through illicit trading,” said the source, adding that less antimony ingot has been shipped to Europe in the past two months due to the snow disaster late January in China and the port congestion in Vietnam in April.
The source confirmed that the European spot market of antimony ingot has witnessed a significant increase in the past two weeks stimulated by tight supply. Meanwhile, the antimony trioxide market also rises in line with the increasing price of antimony ingot. The source who exports 100-150tpm of antimony trioxide just exported a container of non-branded antimony trioxide at around USD5,400/t FOB Chinese main port, USD50/t higher than the previous deal made early last week.
A Hong Kong-based trader confirmed that more foreign buyers are in the market inquiring for antimony ingot due to low availability of the material in international market. The source has received several inquiries from buyers in Europe, U.S., India and Southeast Asian.
“Two European buyers accepted our offers of USD6,300/t CIF Rotterdam immediately after we quoted, mirroring a strong market, so we raised our quotation to USD6,400/t CIF Rotterdam early this week,” said the source, predicting that the European market may continue the upward trend in the rest of May while the price in Chinese domestic market will keep at the current level.