tungsten remains the star

Chinese minor metals weekly roundup - tungsten remains the star

BEIJING (Metal-Pages) 22-Oct-2010. It was a good week for tungsten as prices for all of its raw materials and products continued to rise. Export prices have also moved up due to the stronger yuan exchange rate in recent months, while antimony metal and trioxide markets have firmed on the back of tight supplies of antimony ore.

TUNGSTEN
As steel mills step up production towards the end of the year, demand for ferro-tungsten is surging, and the Chinese market is seeing a recovery.

Domestic prices for ferro-tungsten are reported to have increased to Rmb142,000-144,000/tonne up Rmb5,000/tonne compared with the price seen on Monday.

"Tungsten concentrate prices have been rising, resulting in the increase of alloy production costs," a Jiangxi based producer explained. He believes that the rise in prices of ferro-tungsten is mainly due to the shortage of tungsten ore.

A number of state-owned tungsten ore mines have achieved sales targets ahead of schedule and are about to enter into annual maintenance, which should to some .... need subscription for full story



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Germany to Raise Alarm Over China Rare Earths Restrictions at G-20

By JUDY DEMPSEY NY Times
Published: October 21, 2010

BERLIN Stung by Chinese muscle-flexing over minerals crucial for high-technology industries, the German government said Thursday that it would raise the alarm at the Group of 20 talks, even as it looks to step up efforts to develop new supplies in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

German companies say they are being pressed by Chinese officials to increase their investments in China if they want to be assured of access to rare earth minerals and two other obscure elements, tungsten and antimony. China dominates the mining of these metals...........see link for full article.

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Minerals boom reminiscent of dotcom bubble

The London-based and highly regarded metals analyst firm CRU has just updated its commodity price thermometer of price expectations.

At the "torrid" level (prices to go up 15 per cent or more) are uranium, potash, copper, urea, platinum, palladium and tungsten.

The next level, "warm", (expected rises up to 15 per cent) includes gold, vanadium, ammonia, lead, zinc, molybdenum, alumina and aluminium.

In "cool" mode (drops of up to 10 per cent) are coking coal and nickel, and "frigid" (meaning they will fall more than 10 per cent) are iron ore, cobalt, silver and sulphur.

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Tin = LME best performing metal 2010 +55%
Tungsten APT 185 - 275 +50% (OK maybe <1%)

Tungsten APT @ 270mtu
Raw concentrates @ 215mtu (APT <25%)
FeW @ 38.5kg (convert to mtu = 516mtu) (my math)

HAZ M/C 44M and it looks tightly held

ST target 30c (>50%) only = M/C 66M.

DYOR...