Friday 3 July 2009

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LONDON (Metal-Pages) 03-Jul-09. With summer upon us most markets in Europe and the US are now grinding to a near-halt, and this summer  business is likely to be even slower than usual. Yet there are some hot spots.

Tightening  stocks of antimony in the export market, due to ore shortage and increased consumption of the metal in China, have been driving up prices in Rotterdam.

Echoing the rally in its related base metal nickel on the LME, which returned to trading again above $16,000/tonne for the first time since the end of September 2008, cobalt zoomed up in price over the past couple of weeks, which is attributed to a degree to trade speculation, but also to short-term supply constraints.

Nickel's rise followed the recent forecast by Chinese state research group Antaike which suggested that lower nickel pries have supported production of 300 series austenitic stainless steel (8-10.5% Ni), which is expected to account this year for half of China's stainless steel output. By the end of next year China's stainless steel capacity is expected to reach 20 million tonnes from 15 million tonnes at present (through this year's production has been forecast below 7 million tonnes), with 10 million tonnes of capacity under construction, Ataike said.

Jinchuan Group, China's largest nickel, as well as cobalt ...