One concern at this year's Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA) conference overshadowed all other bearish factors affecting minor metals prices this year: the potential release of metal stocks held by the failed Fanya Metal Exchange.
While global uncertainty and oversupply continue to weigh on minor metals price sentiment in 2019, as expected, most delegates on the sidelines of the conference in Edinburgh, Scotland, were talking about whether the former Kunming-based minor metal trading platform would release stocks into the spot market. "Fanya is the bad dream that does not seem to go away," a US-based trader said. During the two-day conference (April 8-9), there were rumors about a second indium auction taking place by the end of this month. Even though this information is not confirmed, the effect of the rumor is already quite visible. The Fastmarkets indium price is already at its the lowest level since 2014 and down by 42.96% year on year. Fastmarkets assessed the in-warehouse European indium ingot price at $190-215 per kg on Friday April 12, compared with $345-360 per kg on April 18, 2018. There is no big appetite for...