Chinese antimony ingots still dominate international market

Asian Metal: Ms. Zhou, first of all, could you please introduce the main business of your company?

Quanshun Trading Co., Ltd., established in Hong Kong in 2000, mainly engages in indium, antimony, antimony trioxide, ferrosilicon, ferrochrome, ferrotungsten, ferromolybdenum and other products. The company is based on the domestic and foreign markets with customers from Europe, North America, Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia and other regions. Meanwhile, in order to meet the growing needs of international trade, we maintain long-term friendly cooperative relationships with many outstanding domestic producers to guarantee the quality of products and provide better services to our customers.

Asian Metal: Could you reveal the annual trading volume of antimony ingot of your company?

It may achieve about 1,000t in accordance with market conditions.

Asian Metal: Domestic prices for antimony ingot started to rise rapidly from August 2016, but they became depressed after October 2016, and then moving into December 2016, the Chinese antimony ingot market saw another round of increases in price. What do you think is the main reason for the movements in price and what impacts will such movements have on your company's antimony ingot trade?

Prices moved up towards the end of 2016. On the one hand, some producers suspended production for rectification as a result of strict environmental protection supervision and environmental protection inspections in Hunan. On the other hand, the spot market saw the supply shortage as Shan Twinkling Star Antimony collected the material for national reserve. With prices advancing significantly in a short term, most producers were slow to sell with a positive attitude towards the market outlook, resulting in tight supply. Producers had difficult to make offers.

Asian Metal: Some domestic producers who have acquired antimony ingot export quotas claimed that their exports dropped sharply after October, 2016 in comparison with August and September and one of the most important reasons for that was foreign customers resisted higher prices. The market witnessed particularly limited activity moving into December 2016. Some market participants thought now the international antimony ingot supply may have undergone a subtle transformation with some smelting plants having been built in Southeast Asia and these plants have both raw material importing and final products exporting advantages over China. What do you think of that?

Customers had purchased some antimony ingot in July and August when prices were relatively favorable. During October, foreign investors started to sell the material purchased at low prices previously at around USD7,200/t in the market, while domestic prices had reached around USD7,500, a high level, and thus export prices were much higher than import prices. In addition, the market was dim in December because of poor demand as overseas customers were about to leave the market for the New Year holiday. Furthermore, a few antimony ingot processing plants were successively built in the Southeast Asia, most of which were supported by domestic investment, and they had advantages in production costs over domestic plants as they had wider range of sources for raw materials and enjoyed low import tax rate. Consequently, their prices were very competitive. However, it was difficult to control trace elements as a result of very mixed quality of imported raw materials. Therefore, many domestic traders preferred to purchase antimony ingot at reasonably high prices in order to avoid after-sale problems, as some end users attached importance to products quality and only accepted designated brands.

Asian Metal: Currently, the spot supply of antimony ingot is tight in the domestic market, so do you have difficulty in purchasing the material?

Although prices have moved up to high levels, the majority of domestic producers were slow to sell as they are still bullish about the market outlook. Besides, the Spring Festival is around the corner. Therefore, we will struggle to secure the material in the near future.

Asian Metal: Compared with rising prices in foreign markets, the domestic market is relatively calm. How about your company's sales in overseas markets? How do you expect from sales and prices in 2017?

Recently, prices have been firm at high levels in overseas markets while domestic customers have only purchased small amounts of the material per month as a result of sluggish demand and certain amount of stocks. In 2017, if the government continues to strengthen environmental supervision, plants in Guangxi Yunnan will shut down and prices will be hard to fall back to the previously low levels. Nevertheless, end users will make purchases when they need to as they still hold some stocks.

Asian metal: What challenge will Chinese antimony ingot meet in the international market in the future given increasingly fierce competition?

China's antimony ore reserves and production rank first in the world with large amounts of exports, and furthermore China are capable of producing high purity antimony metal (antimony metal 99.999%) and high quality superfine antimony trioxide, representing an advanced production level in the world's antimony industry, so the movements in domestic price will have a great impact on international market prices. However, with domestic prices moving up to a certain level, antimony ingots produced by other countries such as Russia, Bolivia and Peru will gradually occupy market share, so price changes are only for the short-term and the challenges Chinese antimony industry face is also for the time being. When prices fall back, end customers will prefer to buy Chinese antimony as the material from other country have high production costs and the smelting technology is not mature. In addition, in recent years, the domestic demand has increased gradually with 90% of demand from the plastic, rubber, polyester fiber and other industries. Backed up by the domestic market, prices are unlikely to subject to poor foreign demand. During Demand, overseas customers showed little interest in purchasing the material mainly because they believed prices would fall in the short term, but the short-term fluctuation in price will not affect long-term stability too much. Unless the environmental inspections become unreasonably stern, the Chinese antimony ingot will remain dominant in the international market in the coming years.

Asian Metal: Finally, thank you for your sharing and supports to Asian Metal. Wish your business a prosperous future!