Chinese exporters of ammonium paratungstate (APT) kept their spot offers unchanged in the week to Wednesday November 17 amid slow conditions after foreign buyers took to the sidelines upon noticing weakness in China's domestic market.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
tungsten APT 88.5% WO3 min, fob main ports China was $313-319 per metric tonne unit (mtu) on Wednesday, unchanged from a week earlier.
China-based market sources said they would keep their export offers flat until overseas buyers started to show real buying intention.
"Overseas inquiries for APT were very limited in the past week. The prices suggested by some buyers abroad were too low to be accepted. Thus, I would rather not make offers or just keep my offers unchanged," a trader said.
"Once overseas buyers, particularly those downstream manufacturers, began to procure APT, I would negotiate prices with them," he added.
Market sources also told Fastmarkets that they are confident in overseas demand, thus there is no need to cut prices.
"The company I work for is negotiating long-term contracts for APT and tungsten oxide next year...