Magnesium price moves down in China

Magnesium ingot market slowed down late last week when more traders and consumers stood on sidelines without purchasing. Participants anticipate lower prices of magnesium ingot in the first half of June.

A Shanxi-based smelter, running with an output of 400tpm, reported that the magnesium market became stagnant late last week when consumers refused to accept high offers of RMB36,800-37,000/t (USD5,295-5,324/t) ex works and smelters would not like to lower offers.

"We sold small quantities of magnesium ingot at prices slightly above RMB36,500/t (USD5,252/t) ex works early last week, but failed to conclude deals at higher prices later," said the source. "Except that end users still purchased from hand to month to maintain production, most traders ceased buying due to the dull export market."

The source reported that some smelters in the region have lowered offers to RMB36,300-36,500/t (USD5,223-5,252/t) ex works to attract buyers. "But we won't reduce our quotations sharply as most of our output before June 8 has been ordered," stated the source. However, the source is not so optimistic about the market in June, fearing that the whole market may be dragged down fast by some small smelters who would cut down offers to promote sales in order to collect money quickly to pay the increasing prices of raw materials.

"We have started to receive unsolicited offers of magnesium ingot since Thursday, mirroring the market slowdown," a trader source reported to Asian Metal last Friday. "However, we'd prefer to hold back from buying at the quoted prices of RMB36,400-36,500/t (USD5,237-5,252/t) ex works as we firmly believe that the market may go down sharply."