The minor metals markets were fairly flat last week. The lack of movement in prices was attributed both to China’s disciplined refusal to export at low prices and also to China’s lack of interest in importing minor metals.Chinese antimony suppliers have not lowered their prices, Western traders said, and in the US, antimony metal prices inched back up to $4.80-4.83 per lb compared to $4.77-4.80.

 

US bismuth prices softened to $8.65-8.85 per lb compared to $8.80-8.90, but the level of spot buying was not terrible, traders said. Prices for cadmium sticks with 99.95% Cd fell to $1.20-1.25 per lb compared to $1.40-1.45. Prices for cadmium balls, however, were $1.40 and even as high as $1.60. There are few remaining producers of cadmium balls, said one trader in explaining the premium. Also, electroplaters prefer balls over sticks because of the energy savings they provide during melting. Still, electroplating accounts for only about 5% of cadmium use while batteries and pigments account for 85% and 10%, respectively, of cadmium demand.

 

Spot indium prices narrowed to $550-560 per kg compared to $550-565. Traders said they could not find indium at below $525 despite reports of lower spot prices. Korean suppliers reportedly stopped offering cheap indium in April, possibly because consumers within Korea resumed buying. Also, Korea Zinc is believed to have stopped selling off-grade indium, which was depressing prices.

 

For the second consecutive month, Japan’s Dowa Electronics Materials kept its indium prices unchanged in May at ￥54,000 per kg for major users and ￥59,000 per kg for medium/minor users.

 

Japan’s indium imports fell to 13,636 kg in March, 20.7% down from 17,202 kg in February and down 20.1% from 17,063 kg in March 2012. March imports (with March 2012 import in parentheses) were: Korea, 9,375 kg (5,547 kg); Canada, 2,598 kg (1,002 kg); Taiwan, 548 kg (1,277 kg) and Peru, 587 kg (1,069 kg).

The average c.i.f. import price in March was ￥47,605 ($506 in March 2012) per kg from the entire world. The price from Korea was ￥47,505 ($505), from Canada, ￥45,955 ($488); from Taiwan, ￥50,724 ($539); and Peru, ￥49,237 ($523). Remaining were from US, ￥53,623 ($570) with 228 kg, from the UK, ￥48,230 ($513) with 200 kg; and from China, ￥58,230 ($619) with 100 kg.

Indium imports for the first quarter rose 20% to 47,045 kg compared to 39,156 kg in the same 2012 period. Imports from Korea rose 53.3% to 27,910 kg from 18,211 kg. Those from Canada increased 29.9% to 7,296 kg from 5,617 kg. Others included 4,597 kg from the US, down from 7,217 kg; 3,925 kg from Taiwan, up from 2,980 kg; 1,787 kg from Peru, down from 2,357 kg; 881 kg from Laos, up from 500 kg; 499 kg from the UK, up from 412 kg; and 150 kg from China, down from 1,414 kg.