European antimony market weakens further

Believing antimony market should be balanced in the range of USD5,000-5,500/t, European market participants expect antimony metal price to fall further.
A consumer told Asian Metal that the offers of antimony is at around USD5,600/t CIF Rotterdam, and he thinks price will continue to fall as the consumers are not buying at high price. Moreover, the reason for the higher prices is the bad weather and holiday, and now the problems are already solved, so production in china is back to normal.
He takes that the antimony price should frustrate in the range of USD5,200-5,600/t, which can satisfy the Chinese supplier and not drive the consumer of antimony trioxide away. "Market will always be balance as the result of demand. If the price is too high, then the end-users will switch to alternatives."
A trader source disclosed that Chinese offers are in the range of USD5,700-5,900/t CIF Rotterdam; prices decreased in the last few weeks, but demand remains weak that the consumers are not interested in buying.
The source is confused by the current market. He holds that there is little material in warehouse Rotterdam, plus Chinese and European currency are appreciation against USD, however, the price of antimony kept in the range of USD5,000-5,500/t in the passed year and it falls back to the level every time Chinese suppliers tried to push the price to USD6,000/t. "The European consumers did a good job to keep the price down," said the source.

 
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Manganese ore market summary Mar 3-7

Chinese manganese ore market is promising, and the concluded price of the material remains high.
The offers of Australian lumpy manganese ore 45% is at RMB103-105/dmtu ex ports, Australian lumpy manganese ore 48% at about RMB115/dmtu ex ports, Gabonese lumpy manganese ore 48% at RMB110/dmtu ex ports and South African lumpy manganese ore 47% at RMB98-100/t ex works. And market participants generally believe the price of the material will not go down due to the shortage of the material in the global market.
Buyers reported to Asian Metal that the concluded price of Australian lumpy manganese ore 45% is at about RMB100/dmtu ex ports, Australian lumpy manganese ore 48% is at about RMB110/dmtu ex ports and Australian manganese ore 49-50% at RMB103/dmtu ex ports, Gabonese lumpy manganese ore 48% at RMB105/dmtu ex ports and South African lumpy manganese ore 47% at RMB96-98/t ex works.
Market participants generally think the price of the material will not retreat in the coming days, but markup will not be too much as the price of the material is already very high.

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European magnesia market holds stable

Since the middle of last year, magnesia price started to rise due to the increasing power tariff in China, and now foreign buyers claimed that market is stabilizing and price had not changed much for the last few weeks.
A European consumer who buys over two thousand tones 97.5%min fused magnesia every year disclosed to Asian Metal that their current purchase from China are in the range of USD520-525/t FOB China, or USD650/t CIF major European port, which had stabilized currently for the last several weeks.
The source complained that the price for raw material is increasing fast and magnesia price almost doubled compared to the price a year ago. "But I have no other choice but to accept the higher prices as there is no effective alternatives, and the prices for other raw material increased too," said the source.
An Eastern European consumer's last purchase of magnesia was a couple of weeks ago at USD375/t CIF European port. He purchases a few thousand tones of 90%min dead burn magnesia every year, and claimed that price had not changed in the last two weeks
According to him, business has been difficult in the last few months as the European economy is slowing and consumers are buying less material from him. Due to the weak demand for the downstream product, the source is buying less from China and holds that magnesia price may keep stable for that reason.
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Antimony market summary Mar 3-7

The antimony market moved slowly during the week, with few deals concluded for both antimony ingot and trioxide. Although a few Chinese antimony suppliers hold positive expectations towards the future market, most participants believe that the market is due to calm down or even experience a slight drop with more smelters resuming production.
As many suppliers and buyers anticipated, concluded prices for antimony ingot have fallen to RMB40,300-41,000/t (USD5,668-5,767/t) ex works during the week. While some optimistic suppliers hold that the market will not drop further, other suppliers, in view of the slowly increasing supply, believe that the market will continue to go down slowly.
The antimony trioxide market also experienced slow business. Although Chinese suppliers managed to closed deals at higher prices in the past two weeks influenced by the increased production cost, they found it hard to persuade buyers to place orders at prices higher than RMB37,000/t (USD5,204/t) ex works as the antimony ingot prices started to move down
European buyers reported offers of USD5,800-5,900/t CIF Rotterdam or USD5,900-6,000/t in warehouse Rotterdam for antimony ingot. Most market participants believe that the price will keep sliding down. Meanwhile, the antimony trioxide market is also expected to be slow down as antimony ingot prices are in a decline.
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Tin market summary Mar 3-7

Supported by softening US dollar, the bullish movement of oil and precious metals and the strong speculative buying from funds, tin market strengthens further and broke through USD19,000/t on LME during the week. In the sight of the blooming tin market on LME, Chinese participants are also optimistic about the outlook of tin market in the near term, setting the next target at RMB160,000/t in the coming weeks.
3-month tin has been on the record-striking road on LME since last week, and it rose further to hit new highs early this week. With the US dollar weakening, people put more money into commodity market, promoting metal prices rising strongly. Following the bullish movement last week, 3-month tin rose strongly from USD18,750/t last Friday to USD18,950/t this Monday and up further to USD19,050/t and hit all-time high of USD19,375/t on Tuesday. Supported by the strong sentiment among participants, the concerns on tin supply in China and Indonesia, the first two largest producers and the sinking tin inventory in the warehouses of LME, 3-month tin crept up to USD19,250/t on Wednesday. It retreated slightly to USD19,150/t on Thursday, though it ever hovered at the high level of around USD19,350/t early Thursday. The metal still kept stable at USD19,150/t on Friday.
However, most participants do not think that the bullish market will come to an end in the near term. They predicted that 3-month tin will reach the target of USD20,000/t on LME soon, as the tightness of tin ingot supply from Indonesia has not been eased completely. Though the demand from consumers slows down on the rocketing prices, it has not been strong enough to cool down the current bullish market so far.

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Bismuth market keeps going up

Bismuth market keeps going up as price increase neglected consumers unhappy faces USD13-14/lb to hit a new record of around, climbing above it previous record of around USD12.50-13.50/lb.
Participants believe the price may reach around USD15/lb by next week as demand is coming and suppliers were quoting at around USD13.50/lb which left sellers in Europe no choice than to increase their own price too
A U.K trader who claimed deals at around USD14/lb, 50 cent higher than her last deal nodded to the views that price is going towards a new record of around USD15-16/lb since consumers are accepting the price and the bullish market is on for a long stay
"I have not seen signs mirroring a sinking price," said the source. "Suppliers are playing their games very well, for that reason, price may likely break through USD20/lb before sliding.
And in US, sources reported offers at above USD15/lb from Chinese suppliers and they are selling at around USD14.50/lb with one of the trader sources saying that Chinese are asking high prices which will bring about the disappearance of some consumers again from the market

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Zinc concentrate market goes slowly

Zinc ingot market remains weak in China, and zinc concentrate market also goes slowly. Considering the price to rise further, some mines are still reluctant to sell zinc concentrate, while smelters also only purchase with small quantities.
A Shaanxi-based smelter disclosed that they just purchased a batch of zinc concentrate 50%min at around RMB13,000/t (USD1,828/t) delivered to its warehouses from a Henan-based supplier late last week. "As zinc price drops by RMB600/t (USD84/t) this Monday, some suppliers decreased their offers to about RMB12,700/t (USD1,786/t) in local market," said the source
The source reported that as zinc smelters hold large stockpiles of zinc ingot on hand, they are unwilling to purchase raw material with large quantities, in view of capitals turnover. Additionally, some mines think zinc concentrate price may continue to rise further, so they hold on for higher prices. However, the source said the supply of zinc concentrate is still relatively abundant, so it is difficult for the price to rise sharply in the following days.
A zinc mine with a monthly output of 5,000t in Inner Mongolia disclosed that they received more inquiries recently, but concluded deals were still limited. The source offered zinc concentrate 50%min at around RMB12,800/t (USD1,800/t) delivered this Monday, down by about RMB500/t (USD70/t) compared with that last Friday
The source analyzed that the supply of zinc concentrate is comparatively abundant in North China, while the tight supply is seen in zinc concentrate market of South China. "Zinc concentrate price in North China is about RMB500-1,000/t (USD70-141/t) lower than that in South China," said the source, explaining that most mines are still out of production in South China. Looking ahead, the source thinks zinc concentrate price may keep stable for a while and the market trend in long term still depends on the direction of zinc ingot market.
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