Chinese antimony prices hold firm on bullish market sentiment

Chinese antimony metal prices have remained firm at above $5,000/mt CIF Rotterdam as sentiment in the market continues to be bullish, supported by tight domestic antimony concentrate supplies and stronger overseas demand due to the widely expected export rebate cut, industry sources told Platts Tuesday. Antimony metal prices were quoted at around $4,500-4,700/mt CIF in June and began climbing in July.

An official from Beijing Antaike, the state-owned nonferrous metals information provider, said offer prices were now quoted at $5,300-5,400/mt CIF Rotterdam.

"Actual done deals were quoted lower than that but getting close to the offer levels," he said. "Spot material sold to overseas should now be at around $5,100-5,200/mt on a CIF basis. Prices are still firm as antimony is still in shortage in China and overseas buyers' stockpiles are low at present."

Domestic consumption set to rise 10% in 2006
The Antaike official added that Chinese consumption of unwrought antimony was set to increase about 10% year on year in 2006. China consumed 60,000 mt of antimony in 2005.

"The consumption growth is set to be around 10% this year due to the growing demand in China," he said.

China-based industry sources said domestic antimony ingot prices were steady at around Yuan 42,000-43,000 ($5,249-5,374)/mt ex-plant.

The Antaike source added: "Domestic antimony ingot prices are quoting steady at Yuan 42,000/mt ex-plant. Demand in China has been steady so far."

An official from China's Guanglong Antimony Refinery agreed that some offer prices from Chinese producers were at highs of $5,300-5,400/mt CIF Rotterdam. "But producers can't find any buyers at this price level," he said. "Demand is not particulary strong at the moment but continued tight antimony supplies are holding prices firm."

Expected rebate cut to boost prices in long run
Industry sources said widely held expectations of an export rebate cut of 5% on antimony metals was also driving prices higher. There has been ongoing speculation that the export rebate would be canceled starting July 1, 2006, but the move has yet to be confirmed.

"Despite there being no official announcement on the export rebate cut, it's been widely expected that the current export rebate will be cancelled later this year. Now it's just a matter of time when this will happen," the Antaike source said.

He added: "We are likely to see less exports from China in the near future and this will probably lead to more supplies in the domestic market which may pressure down local prices in the near term." He expected, however, that export prices in the long run would rise "and may hit $6,000/mt since China is still the world's biggest supplier of antimony."

The source added that more Chinese producers were reluctant to sell much spot material, awaiting higher prices later this year due to the expected export rebate cut.