Minor metals prices have rebounded in the first quarter of 2021 after a year when the Covid-19 pandemic stifled trade and demand visibility. Fastmarkets highlights the key drivers behind the recent price moves.
Strong demand from China
China's economy began to restart last year far ahead of the rest of the world, which was still feeling the economic impact of Covid-19 shutdowns. Stimulus measures taken by Beijing to counteract the earlier effects of the pandemic have in turn led to steady demand for steel and ferro-alloy products, including manganese flake and tungsten.
The ammonium paratungstate (APT) market has been moving up since the beginning of the year and
tungsten APT 88.5% WO3 min cif Rotterdam and Baltimore duty-free is now trading at $270-275 per metric tonne unit, according to Fastmarkets' latest assessment on March 19, its strongest since May 2019,
amid a pick-up in end-user demand.
"This has been a good quarter so far in terms of demand. Appetite for hard metal remains healthy and the strength in the market will continue until the second quarter, keeping prices firm," a...