Advanced Material Japan Corporation Medical visits Asian Metal

Shigeo Nakamura, President of Business Advanced Material Japan Corporation and Wu Chen, Manager of Beijing office came to visit Asian Metal on the afternoon of May 17th, 2013, talking about rare earth, silicon metal, tungsten and polysilicon markets with Vivian Pang, Susan Yin and Daly Lu from Minor Metals department of Asian Metal.

Advanced Material Japan Corporation (AMJ), as a trading company and a new venture specializing in rare metals, has been aiming at a concept, ”Creation of a new sense of valuation.” Rare metals are materials indispensable for all kinds of new material fields such as electronic materials of mobile phone, PC and slim TV, and materials of hybrid cars and airplanes. Eight years have passed since the company was established. It’s annual sale has increased from 4 billion yen (Approx.US$ 50 million) to 70 billion yen (Approx. US$ 875 million).

Now, AMJ has been dealing so far mainly with rare metals for electronic and functional materials, but from now on will aim at the development of ferroalloy in the resources field of structural materials. China has been making a great stride in the fields of stainless steel and special steel, and has been changing from a supplying country to a demanding country.From this point of view, AMJ is considering it necessary to secure the rare metal fields of a new ferroalloy.

At the beginning of the meeting, Mr.Shigeo Nakamura expressed that he concerns about rare earth market tendencies in the near future and then he gave a introduction of current Japanese rare earth market situation, that is, Japanese purchasers, feeling impact of sliding rare earth prices, are inactive to make substantial procurements. However, AMJ’s rare earth business is ok as the company has some regular clients, who keep sending orders. Then, Vivian introduced Chinese rare earth market. She said that Chinese rare earth market sees small deals as downstream industries keep flat and buyers hold wait-and-see attitudes. Mr.Shigeo Nakamura and Vivian also exchanged opinions about the development of some rare earth projects out of China. Mr Nakamura also revealed that Japanese economy is rebounding now and he believes that Japanese buyers will make substantial purchases of rare earth in H2.

As for the current tungsten market, Daly exchanged ideas with Mr. Shigeo Nakamura. In the recent days, as some companies purchased the tungsten in relatively large quantities, the tungsten market moved up continuously in China. However, the demand from the overseas market is dull, and the trading volume did not recover. Mr.Nakamura expressed that Advanced Metal Japan Corporation is one of the largest tungsten trader in Japan. Under the increasing tungsten market, they are inactive in making deals. On the one hand, they only keep producing on the long-term orders. On the other hand, owing to the stable demand, they are unwilling to hold stocks in large quantities. Furthermore, the tungsten production prices still show uptrend, they are cautious in adding stocks.

Moreover, Daly also exchanged ideas with Mr. Shigeo Nakamura on the polysilicon market. Into 2013, global solar market continues to be sluggish. Under the dull demand, it is hard for the market to rebound in a short time.

At last, Mr. Shigeo Nakamura expressed his his appreciation to Asian Metal for the information and they hope to communicate with Asian Metal promptly about the market dynamics in the future.