The Chinese government is in talks with local companies, including Minmetals, to sell the ammonium paratungstate (APT) stocks it holds in Fanya Metal Exchange warehouses, sources told Fastmarkets at an industry conference in London last week.
Some 29,651 tonnes of APT are still held by the collapsed Fanya - equivalent to almost three months' output in China. No agreement has been reached so far but sources told Fastmarkets that a joint purchase, including the price of such joint purchase, between three large companies had already been discussed. The timing of the release of the stocks held in Fanya's warehouses has not been agreed yet, sources added. But an agreement to offload the stocks to local companies would rule out a public auction, such as that seen in the indium market. In January, an auction of some indium stocks held at the exchange had failed to attract any bidders. There are 3,629 tonnes of indium - or six...