Current tungsten market out of our control - JXTC
2005-02-22 12:52:38 【Print】
Beijing (Asian Metal) 22-Feb-05 There are all sorts of rumors over the market that it is Jiangxi Rare Metals and Rare Earth Tungsten Group Corporation (JXTC) or Minmetals China who is standing behind the curtain to dominate the world tungsten market. Many tend to believe that JXTC or Minmetals China is intentionally driving the tungsten price up by restricting its tungsten conc supply. That's why industry participants are very prudent to sell or buy any tungsten products with intent to avoid possible huge price risk. However, a senior executive from JXTC refuted the rumor and claimed that it is also a victim of the current hiking tungsten market.
"The market development has already been out of our control. If you say that we want to control the market, we would keep the tungsten market stable rather than jumping up so much in so short period," the official told Asian Metal, adding, "The market is too passionate without calmness. It is not what we want to see. It goes against the whole tungsten industry's normal development."
"It is not JXTC, but those small or illegal miners who are driving the price up," said the source. JXTC produced totally around 17000t tungsten conc, grading 65%, in 2004, on a basis of its 1300-1500tpm operation, while the China national total was over 80000t for 2004.
However, the source believed that the current serious shortage of tungsten conc in the market is a fact, at least to JXTC. "Since last November, we began to put our 11 tungsten mines into maintenance one by one. The situation really makes us short of tungsten conc supply. For example, in this month, our tungsten conc output would be only around 400t and in this January the figure was only around several hundred tonnes, too." According to the source, JXTC plans to recover its full tungsten conc operation next month, but did not reveal the specific date.
"If we begin to run fully, the market may turn back to a normal track," commented the source. But it refused to give whether the market price would hence drop down.
According to the source, most of JXTC's current tungsten conc output is currently supplied to those fixed customers rather than sold in the spot market. "We do not sell tungsten conc now, so did not offer a price," the source told Asian Metal. However, the source believes the current accepted market price for tungsten conc suppliers should be around rmb56000/t.
Regarding to APT, the source put a price of around rmb93000/t as acceptable one for those APT producers. But again, the source said that for the moment JXTC has no spot APT available for most of them are tied by long-term orders. Meanwhile, it believes that the current export price should be around usd130/mtu.
Different from other domestic major APT producers who often hardly keep normal operation for lack of enough tungsten conc supply, JXTC fully run on its 5000tpy APT production capacity in 2004. JXTC plans to get similar output in 2005.
