Friday, 09 July 2010
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MINORS LATEST
Antimony price reverses higher, targets $10,000/t again

By Martin Hayes - Chief Correspondent, martin@minormetals.com (+44 (0)20 7929 6339)

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London, 09 July 2010 - Antimony prices, which suffered a temporary reaction to the strong uptrend, reversed direction and raced higher in Europe this week, putting the market on course to retest May’s all-time high of $9,800 per tonne and ultimately the $10,000 level.

"Antimony is going hell for leather at the moment - it does stand out from most of the minors," a trader said.

Prompt on-the-ground antimony was quoted at $9,000/9,400, having bounced sharply from levels below $8,000 two weeks ago - driven higher by the lack of offers from key supplier China.

"The Chinese have turned the tap off for now," another trader said. "This time, I think it is going to go higher, as European end-users only have a month of stock, and demand is going to be higher in the last quarter as well."

China is the world's leading producer and supplier of the metal that, in its compound form as trioxide, is used predominantly in fire retardants. The country produced 170,000 tonnes of antimony out of total 2009 global output of 187,000 tonnes, the latest data from the US geological survey (USGS) shows.

Chinese authorities have renewed their environmental crackdown on smelters in the key producing province of Hunan, traders said.

"It is very difficult to get offers out of China now - some of the smelters that reopened are closed again and they are having to put in gas-scrubbers and water-treatment facilities," a third trader said.

Antimony started the year around $6,000 before taking off at the start of the second quarter. Given the change in the supply picture, there is unlikely to be any significant price reversal.

Apart from a brief dip late last year, the market has advanced consistently from $4,000 in early 2009, which was the lowest for nearly four years.

(Editing by Mark Shaw)
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