Antimony prices in China and Europe fell across the board in the week ended Friday March 29, with consumers putting off procurement until after the April 1 when the Chinese manufacturing sector will have their value-added tax rate cut to 13%, leading to lower costs, sources said.
The Chinese antimony price continued its downward trajectory for the fifth consecutive week after producers failed to shrug off stock pressures amid continuously thin buying interest. Fastmarkets assessed the MMTA standard-grade II antimony, delivered duty-paid in China, price at 44,000-45,000 yuan ($6,555-6,704) per tonne on Wednesday, down 2.2% week on week from 45,000-46,000 yuan. The price has posted a drop of 4,750 yuan per tonne or 9.6% since early 2019 and a loss of 7,750 yuan per tonne or 14.8% year on year. Some Chinese antimony producers were heard to have cut their prices further to lure downstream consumers back to the market for stockpiling in a bid to generate cash and ease their stock pressure. "The performance of the domestic market after the week-long Chinese New Year holiday in early February is really out of our expectation. Usually the [antimony ingot] price...