New tungsten guidance price hard to turn the market
2005-07-15 21:44:18 【Print】
Beijing (Asian Metal) 15 Jul 05 – Although CTIA sets new guidance prices to firm up the softening tungsten market, the prices are still dropping.
A tungsten carbide producer told Asian Metal that he bought a batch of APT last week at RMB160/kg. “We lost quite some money in that deal, because the quote we get this week is around RMB150/kg, and you can get APT at the price around RMB140/kg from small smelters.”
“CTIA should face reality,”said the source,“I understand they are trying to boost market interests, but the new prices are just unreachable.” The new guidance price for APT is RMB200,000/t.
An APT and BTO producer said: “we might take the guidance prices as references, but we have to follow the market. Our price is a little higher than RMB150,000/t right now, but there is no buyers, and we haven’t concluded any deal this month.”
The source told Asian Metal that he already closed the BTO production in the middle of last month due to the uncertain market, and will close the APT production earlier next month for equipment maintenance. The smelter has annual production capacities of 1,300 tons for APT and 300 tons for BTO.
Although the market is softening, a major smelter still holds high prices for tungsten products. “CTIA is doing what's best for the market, and everyone should support,” said an official from the smelter. The smetler is mainly carrying out long term contracts rather than do spot deals for the sluggish market.
