Antimony trioxide prices soaring

Following the soaring antimony ingot price in China, antimony trioxide price has also been skyrocketing over the past couple of days. Producers and traders who concluded deals at RMB41,000-41,500/t (USD6,003-6,076/t) ex works one week ago refuse to sell any material at below RMB43,000/t ex works.

A Hunan-based producer raised offer to RMB43,500/t (USD6,369/t) ex works on Thursday from previous RMB43,000/t (USD6,296/t) ex works seen on Tuesday while his offer was only at around RMB41,500/t ex works at the beginning of last week. "Many buyers came to us for materials but we could not serve all the orders," said the source. The source only sold less than 30t in total to some regular customers at prices ranging RMB43,000-43,500/t (USD6,296-6,369/t) ex works. Considering the fact that there is almost no antimony ingot in the spot market, the source decides to stop offering.

According to the source, almost all antimony ingot producers hold back from selling the material, and thus antimony trioxide producers will have no raw material for production. The smelter, with a production capacity of 300tpm, has only produced around 200t of antimony trioxide since it resumed production in late February. "Our stocks of antimony ingot are running out, but we failed to replenish stocks, so we might have to stop production soon," said the source.

A Guangdong-based trader retailed some antimony trioxide at RMB43,500-44,000/t (USD6,396-6,442/t) delivered on Thursday and plans to raise offer to RMB45,000/t (USD6,589/t) delivered today.

"Like many other traders, our inventories are running low but we it's rather hard to replenish stocks now, so we're unwilling to sell the material on hand," said the source. However, the source reported that consumers are making panic purchase, for fear that the price might rise further. Not only Chinese end users but also overseas buyers are scrambling for materials. "The antimony price is bound to go up further, and no one knows when the price will touch the ceiling," said the source.