Indium traders in Europe watching the market eagerly
2006-01-06 09:36:54 【Print】
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 6 Jan 06 – Traders said indium market is becoming very interesting now with supplies getting tight and producers raising their quotations as everybody is foreseeing a market with price catapulting to over USD1,000/kg. Because of this, traders in Europe have started to hide their stocks waiting for this price bounce,
“My friends who have stocks of indium are not selling as they are waiting for a big hit of around USD1,200/kg, “ said a European trader. “But nobody is sure whether their dream price will be a reality or not because for a long time we have been hearing that the price of indium will go up. Let's hope it goes up this time, then we will have a reason to start buying again.”
Another source confirmed that they are keeping their stock locked up in the warehouse because they know something good is going to happen to the market very soon. In addition, the source said they wanted to buy indium this week but they were offered at around USD920/kg, which is a way of telling them “we are not ready to sell.”
But the question still hovering around the market is whether consumers have started coming back to the market, or are producers raising this price on their own accord. A European trader said they have started seeing purchases from USA, Germany, and South East Europe. While, another trader said as the price is moving up now, it will attract consumers back into market as they will not want to buy when the price is at its peak.
Meanwhile, a Canadian source thinks the market can only become active at the middle of the second quarter because they are not seeing any good demand yet. “Indium market is still quiet although the closure of some crude indium smelters in China only gave us hope that the market will be good very soon,” said the source who is quoting at around USD870-880/kg now. “I think the price will touch USD1000/kg at the second quarter when the Japanese will come back to the market because many producers didn’t sign many long-term contracts, for this reason, consumers will come to the spot market to buy.”
A European producer who raised his price from USD810/kg before the Christmas to USD880/kg now said they have known the price will go up and the closure of plants in China only speed it up.
Analyst said indium market is only bustling with traders’ inquiries and orders to have stocks, there is nothing great happening in the market, and they feel the market will calm down again after few weeks with price keeping steady at this level.
