A slump in global automotive sales in the first half of the year continues to put pressure on tungsten prices, with ammonium paratungstate (APT) and ferro-tungsten prices in Europe now falling to their lowest levels since 2017.
The automotive industry is one of the key tungsten consuming sectors. Tungsten is a raw material of cemented carbide used in car body cutting tools, and reduced demand for cars is resulting in more available material on the spot market, market sources said. Fastmarkets assessed the price of ferro-tungsten basis 75% W, in-whs dup Rotterdam, at $28-28.80 per kg on Friday July 26, unchanged from the midweek assessment and its lowest since July 2017. Meanwhile, Fastmarkets' benchmark tungsten APT 88.5% WO3 min Europe, cif Rotterdam duty-free price is trading at its lowest since March 2017 at $210-225 per metric tonne unit on Friday, unchanged from the previous week's assessment. "The global economic slowdown and ongoing trade war jitters have dampened auto consumption globally," a trader in China said. The continued US-China trade war as well as the potential implementation of...