Chinese antimony market in gradual decrease

BEIJING (Asian Metal) 11 Jun 08 – Antimony market decreased gradually in China with suppliers reluctant to sell and buyers not buying.
An export supplying smelter in Hunan concluded a deal of regular grade two antimony ingot at RMB41,500/t (USD6,014/t) ex works early this week and the last deal was concluded at around RMB41,700-41,800/t (USD6,043-6,058/t) ex works in the end of May. The concluded prices were at RMB41,800-42,000/t (USD6,043-6,087/t) ex works in mid-May.
The source stated that deals become less since the beginning of May. “The market is in a confrontation that suppliers refuse to sell and buyers do not want to buy. Those end-users only make purchases when they use up all their inventories,” said the source, continuing that it is difficult for the market to go up or down by large margins, because the demand from domestic market is stable and most European buyers are out of the market. As the antimony concentrate supply is tight, smelters’ production cost rises and they would not like to lower their prices much.
A Guangxi-based smelter with a monthly production capacity of around 300 tons concluded 40 tons of regular grade two antimony ingot at RMB40,000/t (USD5,797/t) early this week, down from their last deal of RMB40,400/t (USD5,855/t).
The source admitted that the market is in decrease and contributed the reason to few inquiries they received from buyers. The source predicts that the market may not drop by large margins because their production cost is increasing due to the ascending antimony concentrate price.