Beijing Easpring Co., Ltd. visits Asian Metal

On August 23, 2012, Zhu Subing and Yi Wenzhen, marketing manager and the market specialist of Beijing Easpring Co., Ltd. visited Asian Metal and exchanged views on the current cobalt, lithium, bismuth, nickel and copper markets. They expressed great interest in the “Minor Metal Summit 2012” , which will be held by Asian Metal on October 24-26.

Beijing Easpring Co., Ltd. is a high-tech enterprise established in 2001 by the researchers of a famous research institute. The company is mainly engaged in R&D and production of new energy materials, including lithium cobalt oxide, multi-element oxide, lithium manganese oxide and other cathode materials for small lithium batteries and power batteries. Today, The company is a leading specialized supplier of cathode material for lithium-ion batteries.

The company sells materials both at home and abroad and the clients include Sumsung, LG Chem, Sanyo, BYD, etc.. The output of lithium cobalt oxide amounted to 3,900t in 2011 and the planned output will be 4,200-4,500t in total in 2012.

First, the visitors expressed opinions on the information and meeting provided and held by Asian Metal with Bruce Zhang, general manager of the Minor Metal Department of Asian Metal, Claire Li, marketing manager of Asian Metal, Joy Kong, associate analyst of Asian Metal, Corrine Wang, analyst. Manager Zhu and Yi affirmed the professional information provided by Asian Metal and were pleased to have the full opportunity given by Asian Metal every year to upstream and downstream clients of lithium, cobalt and minor metal industry during meetings.

Then, Victor Hoo, senior analyst of Asian Metal introduced the current bismuth market and got informed of the current bismuth oxide business in Easpring. Many buyers, with great pressure from stock, can only accept low prices. Insiders remain pessimistic about the future bismuth ingot and bismuth oxide markets due to compressed demand overseas.

Afterwards, visitors shared opinions on nickel market with Penny Wei, nickel associate analyst of Asian Metal. Easpring mainly purchases nickel sulfate to produce ternary materials and its plant in Xinxiang typically purchases raw material from Jien. As nickel prices continue to fall, battery market runs sluggishly while buyers just purchase materials for immediate use. On the future trend, clearer political situation is likely to support economy to recover and thus nickel price will rise gradually with little possibility of dramatic decline.

In copper market, domestic price remains upward and the spot market has been experiencing increased movement. Casey Hu, analyst of copper market, attributed copper price appreciation to shrinking output of producers for overhauling equipment, leading to decreasing supply in spot market. In addition, participants expect easy policy from Sino-America. It is known that many clients do not feel strong support for price hike recently, but copper price is likely to rise in the near-term while depressed domestic economy and weak downstream demand will prevent the price going up in the long run. In the past days, price of copper has been hovering at RMB56,000/t in Shanghai while prices of copper have been at USD7,600-7,700/t in London.

Meanwhile, Asian Metal appreciates support from Beijing Easpring Co., Ltd. and hopes for continuous friendly communications between the two companies.