LME molybdenum price (cash seller and settlement) dropped sharply to US$26,500 per ton (= US$12.02 per lb) on September 17. This represents a decrease of US$2,750 versus US$29,250 (= US$13.27 per lb) of early September, and a decrease of US$6,500 versus this year's all-time high record of US$33,000 (= US$14.97 per lb) made in June.

Market watchers provide such factors for this time's sharp drop as (1) WTO made a correction recommendation to China's export restriction on molybdenum (20% export duty and export quota), and the anticipation of enforcement of deregulation becomes strong, (2) It has been made clear that the world molybdenum production by respective molybdenum producers in the period from April to June was firm, and the production will increase in the period from July to September, (3) Demand and supply balance is moving closer to excess supply, (4) The consumption in Europe where the summer vacation was over doesn't increase as expected and (5) LME futures trading is apt to drop because of current high-value dollar.

For a reference, the price of tungsten which was an issue together with molybdenum for filing a WTO complaint has shown a declining trend since the end of April, continued to decline during June to August and stopped dropping from US$41 per lb in September. This price showed a declining trend in response to WTO's movement with a speed faster than molybdenum, for which some have an opinion that the price of molybdenum has continued to be flat during July to August, which resultingly led to this time's sharp drop.

• [Editor:Mango]