Asian Metal visits antimony enterprises in Yunnan and Hunan Province

On April 20-30, 2015, Sera He, Antimony Market Analyst of Asian Metal, and Vanessa Yang, Assistant Market Analyst of Asian Metal, visited antimony enterprises in Yunnan and Hunan.

During April 20-25, Asian Metal visited Yunan Wenye Nonferrous Metal Co., Ltd., Yunnan Muli Antimony Industry Co., Ltd., Xiong Zhao Industrial Co., Ltd and other antimony enterprises in Yunnan.

On April 20, Sera He and Vanessa Yang visited Yunan Wenye Nonferrous Metal Co., Ltd, and communicated with Mr. Liang Dakun, the General Manager of Wenye. Mr. Liang said that the upward antimony prices in March didn’t last into April due to a lack of real demand. There were abundant antimony ingot and antimony oxide inventories in late April in spite of the temporary suspension of private producers in Lengshuijiang area. And impacted by the large amount of stocks, Mr. Liang thought the market can hardly see any improvement in Q2. After that, he tour Asian Metal around their metallurgical plant. Mr. Liang confirmed that he would attend the 3rd World Antimony Forum to be held by Asian Metal on May 20-21.

On April 21, Aisian Metal visited Yunnan Muli Antimony Industry Co., Ltd. Mr. Chen Shaowu, president of the company, said that their output has kept steady at around 400tpm. Under the backdrop of serious overcapacity, Mr. Chen called for all the enterprises to make reasonable production in order to promote the healthy development of antimony industry. Mr. Chen also confirmed the attendance of the 3rd World Antimony Forum to be held by Asian Metal on May 20-21.

In the afternoon, Asian Metal visited Yunan Minmetals Trading Co., Ltd. and exchanged opinions with Yuan Yuan, Vice General Manager and Fan Lei, Sales Manager. Ms Fan said their export offers for antimony oxide hadn’t witnessed large fluctuation in April in spite of the price uprising. Buyers were quite cautious about making procurement with watchful attitude.

During April 23-25, Sera He and Vanessa Yang visited Yunnan Xiong Zhao Industrial Co. Ltd. and Yunnan Zi’ang Mining Co., Ltd. Mr.Lv Xu, the Sales Manager of Xiong Zhao, showed Asian Metal around the plant,and introduced the condition of stock and the newly finished production line No. 2, as well as the production line No.3 which is still under construction. Mr. Wan Shaowu, president of Xiong Zhao, communicated with Asian Metal about the present antimony market. In view of the historical price trend of antimony metal, Mr. Wan thought the price would drop down again in the future. Yunnan Zi’ang Mining Co., Ltd. was established in October, 2013 in Lanping County as a substitute of Datong Group. Jiang Yan, Vice President of Zi’ang told Asian Metal that they were debugging the equipment now, and would produce around 60,000tpy of antimony ore and 9,000t of antimony powder after the beginning of normal operation.

During April 27-30, Asian Metal visited Hsikuangshan Twinkling Star Co., Ltd., Chenzhou Mining Co., Ltd. and Yiyang Shiny Materials Science & Technology Co., Ltd and other antimony companies in Hunan.

On the morning of April 27, Asian Metal visited Sanxing Antimony Plant and Sanhui Antimony Co., Ltd. Sanxing focus on medium and low grade antimony oxide 99.5%min with an monthly output of 400-500t while Sanhui is mainly in charge of the sales of the products.

In the afternoon, Asian Metal visited Hsikuangshan Twinkling Star Co., Ltd. During which, Mr Zhang Haisheng, General Manager Assistant, revealed that they were going to make adjustment on the sales system but haven’t settled any specific plan yet.

On the morning of April 28, Asian Metal visited Hunan Taojiang Jiutong Antimony Co., Ltd. and communicated with Mr.Cai Zhiming, the Vice President and Mr.Shi Wenbin, Production&Sales Manager. Mr. Cai and Mr. Shi introduced the antimony ingot production condition of the plant, and said that ingot producers could find enough antimony ore in local Banxi and their production cost has been reduced these days. But there is a lack of motivation for the prices to go up under the overall sluggish market condition. And according to Mr. Cai, the market would see no optimistic sign in Q2. After that, Asian Metal visited their dressing plant.

In the afternoon, Sera He and Vanessa Yang visited Hunan Anhua Huayu Antimony Co., Ltd. and communicated with Mr. Li Hongwei, sales manager of Huayu, about present antimony market situation. Both sides agreed that the stability of antimony ingot prices have hindered the up-going of antimony oxide prices. On the morning of April 29, Asian Metal visited the metallurgical plant of the company.

In the afternoon, Asian Metal visited Hunan Chenzhou Mining Co., Ltd. and exchanged opinions with Mr. Li Yi, sales manager of Chenzhou Mining. Mr. Li suggested that participants should try to make deals in Chinese RMB so as to avoid unnecessary lose bringing by the fluctuation of exchange rate. Mr. Li confirmed that he would attend the 3rd World Antimony Forum hold by Asian Metal.

On the morning of April 30, Asian Metal visited Changsha Yexing Antimony Co., Ltd. Mr.Cui Youming, the General Manager, said fierce homogeneous competition in antimony series catalyzer market had led to ever-lower prices, and the company would reduce cost and improve products quality so as to raise their competitiveness.

In the afternoon, Asian Metal visited Yiyang Shiny Materials Science & Technology Co., Ltd. Tang Lei, the General Managerl, thought that antimony ingot and antimony oxide prices could hardly stop decreasing in the second season, they had no plan to raise the output. Mr. Tang confirmed that he would attend 3rd World Antimony Forum hold by Asian Metal.