Asian Metal meets Avon Metals

On the 8th October 2013 Asian Metal London analyst, Mark Moore, met with Richard Lewis and Steve Cutler, commercial traders of Avon Metals Ltd, whilst they were in London attending events hosted during the LME Week. Avon Metals LTD is a mid-sized aluminium alloy smelter with a targeted weekly output of 250 ton of finished products and a maximum annual capacity of 20,000 tons. Alongside this Avon Metals trade a range of non-ferrous and minor metals.

Richard and Mark discussed the silicon markets with regards to the low prices that have been witnessed for silicon metal over the past 12 months. Richard believes this is mainly the result of lower demand for downstream products which has reduced the consumption rate of silicon metal in many applications leading to more competitions between producers as they run at lower capacities.

Mark noted Europe continues to see significantly reduced demand in the automotive industry which accounts for a large portion of the silicon metal consumed in products entering this industry. Steve explained that Avon has not suffered from this loss of business as Avon Metals supplies more specialist application, but noted several of the larger aluminium alloy smelters in Europe have suffered significantly with this reduced business and also the high aluminium prices on the LME have reduced margins leading to many seeing financial difficulties this year.

Both Richard and Steve expect to see some improvement in the metal markets through 2014 but noted that the economic situation in Europe is the major factor in driving this change. The strategy for Avon Metals in recent years has been to diversify their product portfolio and enter into new geographical regions with growth of sales in South America, Africa and the Middle East.

Both Steve and Richard noted their appreciation for Asian Metals market coverage and accurate price analysis, confirming that other providers often do not give such a concise and focussed guide to prices and news with such a diverse product portfolio.