Maritime House Visits Asian Metal

On Tuesday April 16th, Roland Chavasse, General Manager of Maritime House UK, visited Asian Metal’s London office to meet with Melvin Hill and Elliott Day, Asian Metal’s respective EMEA Regional manager and noble/ferro-alloy market analyst. A recent member of the internationally esteemed Minor Metals Trade Association (MMTA), Maritime House UK is a specialized trading firm focusing on the global import/export of various chemicals and super-alloys with a particular emphasis on the Russian market.

Over a cup of coffee at a nearby restaurant, Roland, an experienced trader in the metals industry, provided both Melvin and Elliott with a brief description of Maritime House’s history along with valuable insight into the trade and business practices within the notoriously closed and discreet domestic Russian market. Both parties then discussed the potential impact of several prominent global metal market trends and developments, including the rise of Russia as a major player in the production of rare earth materials as well as the impact of REACH on the European metal/mineral trading sector.

Maritime House is considering expanding its rare earth operations, Roland explained, adding that while the current path towards global supply diversification still faces many obstacles, he believes Russian production will emerge as an increasingly important source for production. Melvin agreed, noting that Russia already possesses the technical know-how and capacity to internally expand its domestic rare earth materials production, which already accounts for a noteworthy portion of total ROW production capacity.

Roland explained that he has been noticing a growing demand for super-alloy products from his Russian downstream buyers who are involved in the production of parts for gas turbines, oil & gas and mining products. He felt that this may have an impact on future prices of tungsten, tantalum and titanium as these minerals are heavily consumed in the production of super-alloys. Elliott agreed with Roland’s assessment, and suggested that this increasing demand for tungsten from the super-alloy industry may help prices of APT in Europe hold above USD350/mtu in the months ahead.

Roland praised Asian Metal for both the accuracy of its information and the professionalism of its product specific analysts, specifically citing the depth of the Asian Metal monthly reports as a truly distinguishing attribute. While he regrets not being able to personally attend this year’s International Rare Earth Summit in NYC, he noted that one of Maritime House’s agents in North America will likely participate in the important annual event.