China's tungsten market is experiencing a tight supply of concentrate and ammonium paratungstate (APT), pushing prices for both products upward and leading some participants to expect the market to begin a new uptrend.
The supply shortage has forced Chinese APT exporters to either raise their offer prices or suspend trading entirely.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for
tungsten APT 88.5% WO3 min, fob main ports China was $275-282 per metric tonne unit (mtu) on Wednesday June 30, up by $5-6 per mtu - or 2% from - $270-276 per mtu from a week earlier.
A trader said that he could only sell limited quantities of APT when responding to each inquiry to maintain his business relations with as many overseas buyers as possible.
"I just don't have abundant material in hand, and it is hard to source for it from the market now," the trader said.
The trader told Fastmarkets that even when he raised prices above $280 per mtu when there were overseas inquiries, some buyers quickly confirmed their orders within the day without any bargaining.
Meanwhile, some exporters said that they did...