East Asian vanadium market slow
2006-07-04 10:55:52 【Print】
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 4 Jul 06 - Ferrovanadium market still remains slow now, with current ferrovanadium 80% price around USD35/kg and vanadium pentoxide price around USD7.0-7.5/lb in East Asian market.
A Shaanxi-based vanadium smelter, with a production capacity of 70tpm of vanadium pentoxide, who now quotes RMB130,000/t(USD7.5/lb) for vanadium pentoxide flake and sold about 15t of the material for RMB126,000-128,000/t(USD7.3-7.4/lb) last week believes that vanadium market is still softening. "The market still remains sluggish now," said the producer. "Now we can also sell the material at RMB125,000/t, but can not accept any lower prices."
A Korea-based trader who has not made any deals in the past several weeks believes that vanadium pentoxide price will drop to USD6.5/lb in spot market in the coming weeks, although it is still around USD7.0-7.5/lb in South Korea now, because there is no actual demand now. "All our customers are waiting and watching now, and the market remains very quiet" said the trader. "So we dare not purchase any material from producers now."
Meanwhile, a Japanese trader who has received a ferrovanadium 80% offer around USD35/kg from a major local producer believes that the offer is too high and they want to purchase the material by USD33/kg. Although ferrovanadium market remains softening now, the trader believes that it is very difficult for ferrovanadium price to drop below USD30/kg in the coming weeks, because major producers will refuse to sell at lower prices.
With a batch of ferrovanadium 80% in stock, the trader now quotes USD36/kg for the material to its customers, but its customers want to purchase the material around USD34-35/kg.
