European antimony market sees higher quotations

Due to the icy weather in southern China, European market participants reported to Asian Metal that they received higher quotations from Chinese suppliers and many of them hold that price will go up in the coming days.

A European trader revealed that the Chinese producers are raising offers because of the bad weather condition in China. "I was told that many producers were forced to close their production, and transportation is terrible in southern China." According to him, the price went up by USD50-100/t from USD5,500-5,550/t to currently USD5,600-5,650/t CIF Rotterdam for 99.65% standard grade two antimony ingot.

The trader holds that the consumers will come to market soon. "Some consumers bought material handto- mouth and they will realize price will go up higher, so they may come to market for big quantities," said the source, who believes price will go up further in the coming several weeks.
Another market participant also claimed that the offers he received is about USD100/t more expensive for the low bismuth grade two antimony ingot, and the highest offer was USD5,700/t CIF Rotterdam.
"I think price will go up in the near future," said the source and admitted the production difficulties and transportation problem will have impact in the European antimony price.