Host
Asian Metal
Sponsor
End of Summit
The International Minor Metal & Ferroalloy Summit 2012 in Miami, FL on March 7-9 included 75 delegates from the US and abroad.
The conference started with opening remarks from Asian Metal America’s Office General Manager and Analyst, David Schollaert, at 9:00 a.m. Jeff Green, President of J.A. Green & Company, was the first speaker and discussed the US government policies and investment of critical minor metals. He noted that “total U.S. non-fuel mineral dependence (100%) has risen from 10 commodities to 19 since 1995.” Many materials used by the government are subject to price manipulation, but often have few or insufficient alternatives, Green added. These materials include: indium (semiconductors), rhenium (jet engines), gallium (semiconductors), vanadium (specialty metal and ship building) and germanium (infrared lenses). “US Government annually invests in critical materials from foreign and domestic industry, with set-asides for small business,” Green stated, continuing that the first step in engaging the government is educating officials as many are unaware of issues within the market.
Peter Secker, President and CEO of Canada Lithium Corp, gave an overview of lithium as well as updates to its mining project in Quebec. Overall, he looks for demand growth to accelerate from 7%-8% per annum to 12%-14% by mid-decade and 18%-20% by 2020. Xingu Yang of Hunan Zhongnan Antimony and Tungsten Co., Ltd then gave a review of the antimony market and said that determining factors for 2012 are macro-analysis, demand and supply, unavoidable increasing cost and that substitutes will occur due to excessive prices of material. In conclusion, Yang stated that, “Antimony price is likely to rebound rapidly in the domestic market as the Spring Festival holiday ended and a cadmium pollution incident broke out in Hechi, Guangxi. However, sources noted that there is limited space for the price to rise and whether [conditions] will improve is still determined by global the economic environment.”
After a short coffee break, Pierre Monet, President and CEO of Malaga, Inc., took the stage to speak on tungsten and supply outside of China. He explained that, “Demand…is so high that end-users are acquiring… mines to secure and own their supply.” Monet then discussed the company’s Pasto Bueno mine in Peru, which at the current production rate, has close to two years of reserves and nearly seven years of measured and indicated resources. Alan Benjamin, CEO of SMG Indium Resources Ltd., reviewed indium as an investment. He stated that demand has progressed over the last decade along with the LCD industry. The material is a vehicle for ventures as there are no indium mines, no formal futures exchanges or contracts and no traded funds. “Historically, new indium-based technologies have caused multi-year supply gaps and extreme price shocks, until production could be increased,” Benjamin concluded.
Next, an analysis of the Chinese silicomanganese market was presented by Zhou Shusheng, Vice GM of Sichuan Hanyuan Manganese Industry Co., Ltd. “The Chinese steel industry has stepped into stable development stage in recent years after rapid development for over [a decade]. Growth rates of crude steel output and GDP kept equal in general,” Shusheng stated. He continued that the Chinese government’s attitude is clear that it is better for silicomanganese output to only meet domestic demand and better to import. Due to a number of factors, mainly weak demand and worsened economies, Shusheng explained, “The market is unlikely to rebound unless the real estate [sector] improves. In order to go through 2012 stably, producers have to try hard to increase profitability and decrease production cost.”
Rick Honsinger, VP of Corporate Communications of Formation Metals Inc., presented an overview of cobalt, adding that the company will supply the superalloy sector with high purity cobalt metal with the development of its project in Idaho. Honsinger said that tightness will remain a constant looking forward as superalloy consumption grows. Shailesh Patkar, Sr. Corporate Business Development Manager for Pacific Rare Specialty Metals & Chemicals, Inc, closed day one of the Summit with a talk on expanding the raw material supply chain for advanced technology industries. He said that, despite growing uncertainty in downstream markets, the company plans to use technology differentiation to strengthen the raw material pipeline, develop best-in-class production capability and metrics and leverage extractive metallurgy expertise to diversify products. They strive to do this through strategies that include collaborating with suppliers, recycling product and looking at other materials such as rare earths and high grade minor metals.
Green also started off the second day of the conference, presenting on the Specialty Metals Clause, which was initially attached to the Berry Amendment (1941) in FY1973 NDAA. “Berry designed to protect US industries through preference on US-produced food & apparel for defense procurement History of Specialty Metals: Legacy of ‘Buy American’,” Green said. The main step still remains to educate policy-holders on downstream industries, while players should understand the logistics and strength of the supply-chain.
The President of TTP Squared, Inc., Terry Perles, then spoke on vanadium fundamentals and its future implications. He noted that resources are held by China, Russia, South Africa and the US, which has only 0.3% of the supply. Perles also updated on the Windmurra vanadium project. In summary he said, “Vanadium consumption is projected to grow by 11.4% in 2012, with supply growing by 6.9% leading to potential tight market conditions.” Energy storage applications, as well as Chinese rebar, have the potential to cause growth as well, Perles added.
Closing the Summit was Alex Iasnikov, Business Development Manager of Neo Material Technologies, who presented on rhenium demand and recycling in the aerospace sector. He made the assertion that rhenium supply is mounting due to increase in recycling, while the aircraft industry heavily drives consumption. Iasnikov made the point that, over the last five years, “recycling of superalloys has been growing consistently and in 2011 recycling and revert reached 19 tons and accounted for almost 30% of supply.”
The International Minor Metal & Ferroalloy Summit 2012, sponsored by Formation Metals, Malaga and Canada Lithium Corp, ended with a lunch at 11:30 a.m. on Friday, March 9. Delegates networked and shared their views of the market in an intimate environment that fostered growth of business and ideas of how to navigate through uncertain economic times.