With Tightened Supply The Prices of Chinese Antimony Ingot Go Up Generally

Owing  tightened supply  the prices of Antimony Metal continue to go up in China ,the current domestic sale prices have come to RMB42,000-43,000/Mt with the rising range of RMB2,500-3,000/Mt .The prices of Antimony Metal were about RMB39,500-40,000/Mt in China in the middle of Jan and before the heavy storm.But influenced by heavy storm and Chinese Spring Festival the domestic antimony supply are tightened and the prices rise accordingly.Now the basic selling quotations from antimony manufacturers are all at about the level of FOB USD5,900/Mt.The manufacturers who have antimony metal stock  rised their sale prices one after another.

Although the smelters and manufacturers are recovering their production gradually ,but the actual total output have not come to the normal standard of the same period  .It is predicted by insiders that everything will go well once the electric power completely recovers in March .Some companies have started up some antimony smelters but the others are all under stop production status .So far we do not know when the smelters will start production from stop production status. There are still some areas that have not been recovered  the elecric power ,so the manufacturers can not confirm when will come back to the normal production standard. On the other hand the export quotations in China have appeared  rising trend that have aroused "reject purchasing feeling" from oversea's buyers.

It is disclosed by one Beijing based trader that the current antimony export quotations have rised to CIF USD 6,250/Mt ,which is USD50/Mt higher than last week.News from one Hongkong based trader that the current quotations for 99.65% Antimony Metals are  CIF East and South Asia Port  USD 6,000/Mt ,but it was USD 5,700/Mt at the beginning of Feb,2008 ,and there was no customer to accept such price .Analysed by insiders that the rising speed for the current prices are very rapidly that make some customers do not have the proper mental preparation. So the customers with inquries can not catch up with the price rising speed .
Except the supply factors ,the RMB increase in value has been another reason.When the RMB benchmark price rised 1-2% the antimony prices will rise about USD 20-30/Mt to fatch up the loss to the manufacturers .As far as the future antimony market trend is concerned ,most of  the customers consider that the price can not drop to the level of USD 5000/Mt .