Wednesday, November 02, 2011
Speciality metals: China squeezes, investors grab
As with rare earths, so with speciality and rare metals - China is
tightening its grip in metals in which it dominates global supply.
From Beijing comes news that China will cut export quotas for tin,
tungsten, antimony and molybdenum in 2012, all of which it is the
world‘s top producer (in the case of antimony, accounting for about
75 per cent of global output).
The new totals (with 2011 quotas in parenthesis) are: tungsten
15,400 tonnes (15,700); tin 18,000 tonnes (18,900); antimony 59,400
tonnes (60,300); molybdenum 25,000 tonnes (25,500) and indium 231
tonnes (233).
This coincides with a Reuters report out of London that says many
investors - put off gold and silver due to their present high
prices - are turning to the minor metals market as a safe haven for
their pension funds. 'We've always had a certain amount of interest
from the rich in the Anglo-American sector. About four years ago it
started to pick up within people with average wealth,' Gunther
Maassen of German trading firm Haines & Maassen was quoted by
Reuters as saying.
Meanwhile, a British investment website, London South East, reports
that Frankfurt-based metals trader Tradium has set a 50,000 euro
minimum for private investors to buy physical metal. Among the
metals private investors ae now stocking up on are indium,
germanium, gallium and hafnium - so much so that Tradium has opened
a new storage facility in the Rhine-Main area. “At current prices,
50,000 euros worth of indium, for example, would amount to over 100
kg of metal,” the website says. There is also growing interest
among European investors in REE as they recognise the importance of
these elements in magnet production.
There have been separate reports that indium prices have overtaken
those of gallium. They are sitting at between $US620 and 690 per
kilogram and $US610-670/kg respectively.
As for tungsten, the metal has found a new use recently: in wedding
rings, being much cheaper than gold - you can buy them for as
little as $US179, although one with three diamonds will set you
back $US745. And, because tungsten is one of he hardest metals
around (which is why it is vital for machine tools), these rings
don't get scratches. Now one of the big U.S. online retailers,
Titanium-jewellery.com, has launched line of cobalt rings.
Again, as with REE, these minor and speciality metals are finding
new uses - and new investors - every week.
http://www.raremetalblog.com/2011/11/speciality-metals-china…