Tungsten Market in China Is in a Stalemate

Analysis of latest tungsten market in China from Chinatungsten Online: Last week, domestic tungsten price slowed down the pace of decline. It was hard to make a transaction at high price and purchase at low price, as raw material manufacturers were reluctant to sell and downstream customers refused to purchase expensive products. As a result, tungsten market stabilized. But it is still not clear whether the market will rebound in the late stage, because there is still a lack of strong support for the market from the present point of view.

Enforcement strength of environmental protection policy increases after the 19th National Congress, so shortage tends to come back to the tungsten concentrate. As of last Friday, 65% wolframite concentrate price stood at $15,814 per tonne to $16,124 per tonne. At present, the demand of downstream tungsten products still needs to be released, which is difficult to push up price in the short term. The mentality and buying of downstream smelters need to be concentrated for judging the late tend of tungsten concentrate price.

Low price of raw materials was unavailable for APT manufacturers, so the willingness of shipments declined and the quotation came back to $280 per mtu. It is reported that most APT manufacturers have little stocks and with the change of mentality, manufacturers have reduced their shipments that have little profits. The actual transaction price of APT was more concentrated from $278.5 per mtu to $280 per mtu last week.

Tungsten powder market was thin last week. Tungsten powder manufacturers expressed that low price of APT was rare and profits were limited. As most enterprises mainly supplied long-term orders, so the sale price was not too high. Tungsten powder price mainly ranged from $39.4 per kilogram to $40 per kilogram and medium particle tungsten carbide powder was $39 per kilogram to $40 per kilogram.   

Taken together, new resources in the tungsten concentrate market were not too much, downstream enterprises accepted high quotation occasionally due to urgent purchases, and sellers kept firm quotation. Spot price of APT came back to $280 per mtu supported by costs. But whether the tungsten price in November will rebound as expected, it needs further confirmation of the average price from tungsten associations and long-term negotiated prices from large tungsten enterprises.

Price of tungsten products on Oct. 30, 2017

Folow our WeChat to know the latest tungsten price, information and market analysis.

• < Prev
• Next >