Thin spot activity in the European antimony market pressured prices lower still in the region while an improvement in Chinese sentiment enabled prices there to stabilize.
Chinese market steadyFastmarkets MB assessed the price of MMTA standard grade-II antimony, delivered duty-paid, in China at 49,500-50,000 yuan per tonne on Wednesday December 5, unchanged from the previous week. Sellers proved reluctant to surrender further on the price amid better domestic market sentiment. Most trades concluded at 49,500-50,000 yuan per tonne in the period to December 5, market participants said.Signs of easing trade tensions between the United States and China gave domestic sellers some leverage to hold their prices stable, sources said. At the Group of Twenty (G20) summit over November 30-December 1 in Argentina, Chinese Chairman Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump reportedly agreed to suspend for 90 days the imposition of any further tit-for-tat tariffs."We found it a little hard to source [antimony ingot] at...