Tungsten APT demand recovers before summer
2006-06-19 09:26:29 【Print】
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 19 Jun 06 – In the last three weeks, Chinese tungsten prices recovered in the domestic market first, then the export prices rose since ten days ago, and dealers reported more sales due to the higher demand.
“This is a good time for the price to go up as demand is recovering,” said a trader in Europe. He revealed that most offers of APT he received are in the range of USD253-260/mtu, “one can buy at the price of USD253-254/mtu on CIF basis or USD255-260/mtu on Rotterdam warehouse basis. The highest offer he received was USD268/mtu CIF Rotterdam, and he claimed this is a price out of the market reach.
“Demand is getting better in the last two weeks that we are seeing more consumers are back to the market.” The trader believes the consumers would come to market before the summer anyway, but the higher prices of APT pulled them back sooner.
Another dealer confirmed the higher prices of APT from Chinese suppliers. “I heard that the tungsten wolframite price rose in China, so I expected that the APT export price would also rise.”
The source is offering wolframite to Chinese customers, and 60%min wolframite is offered at USD180/mtu CIF China.
