Tungsten concentrate price jumps again
2009-08-13 09:19:09 【Print】
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 13 Aug 09 – According to market participants, tungsten supply remains tight, and producers are reluctant to sell. Jiangxi Ganzhou Tungsten Industry Association’s guiding price of 65%min tungsten wolframite is RMB66,000/t in August, but market participants claimed that it is difficult to get material at that price level.
An official from a Fujian tungsten APT producer told Asian Metal that he has already stopped production for almost two months, and they cannot get enough supply to resume production soon. “We got in touch with a few tungsten concentrate suppliers, and at first they told us they had material available, but they refused to deliver after we already agreed on the price a few days ago,” the source complained, disclosing that the agreed price of 65%min tungsten wolframite was around RMB65,000/t, which was the mainstream price in the end of last week, and the current price is already over RMB66,000/t.
He thinks that the price of tungsten concentrate will firm up higher in the coming days if the supply remains in shortage. According to him, APT price is at around RMB105,000/t, and there is no profit if buy the raw material and sell APT at the current price level. Unlike some APT producers who hold material from selling, the official claimed that their stock is almost sold out, and they may resume production if they can get raw material at reasonable price.
An official from a Jiangxi tungsten market participants told Asian Metal that it is difficult to source 65%min tungsten wolframite at RMB66,000/t, because the producers are not willing to sell. “With the current speed, we will see the tungsten concentrate price reach RMB70,000/t very soon,” said the official.
He pointed out that it is common for the tungsten concentrate producers to hold several hundreds tons of tungsten ore or tungsten concentrate, and their target price is higher than the current market price. Moreover, when price rises fast, the producers tend to hold material from selling as they want to sell at higher price later. The official revealed that he has stopped quoting for several of the downstream products as the price of raw material changes rapidly.
The source holds that the economy is slowly recovering in China and many other countries, so the demand of tungsten will improve worldwide. “Although I have not concluded any business in the export market in the last few weeks, there are some inquiries from overseas customers,” the source remarked, and expects the price of tungsten products to go higher in the near future.
