BEIJING (Asian Metal) 21 Jul 20 – Currently, mainstream prices of Chinese ferrovanadium 50%min stand at RMB105,000-107,000/t (USD30.1-30.6/kg V) delivered D/A 180 days, unchanged from late last week. Inquiries from steel mills stay rare and most suppliers face huge sales pressure now. Meanwhile, the quantity of cheaper import ferrovanadium keeps grow, few producers in China could increase their quotation. Though the cost stays firm, insiders believe that mainstream prices of ferrovanadium 50%min would stay in a stalemate in the coming week.
“Prices of raw material vanadium pentoxide flake 98%min stand firm at RMB105,000/t (USD7/lb V2O5) EXW D/P during the past week and we could hardly drop our quotation for ferrovanadium now. However, some traders keep importing ferrovanadium and they sell at a far cheaper price, which makes bad influence for us,” a trader in North China said. They quote their ferrovanadium 50%min at RMB106,000/t (USD30.3/kg V) EXW D/P during the past week and could accept RMB105,000/t (USD30.1/kg V) for firm bids more than 10t now. He received the current import prices of ferrovanadium 50%min stand at only RMB102,000/t (USD29.2/kg V) now. Though inquiries from end consumers stay rare, they have no plan to accept any orders below their quotation in the coming week just to guarantee their basic profit.
With a regular trading volume of 50tpm, they sold about 600t in 2019 and only about 200t so far this year. They expect to sell 30t in July, unchanged from June, holding about 15t as safety stocks at the moment, the same as last month.
“Inquiries from steel mills stay rare and we didn’t receive any one so far this month. However, we built stock of ferrovanadium 50%min at RMB105,000/t (USD30.1/kg V) delivered D/P and won’t accept any orders below RMB105,000/t (USD30.1/kg V) EXW D/P now,” another trader in North China noted. Some international ferrovanadium 50%min traders quote RMB102,000/t (USD29.2/kg V) to them and could buy at RMB101,000/t (USD28.9/kg V) for firm bids. Considering that more and more traders start to import cheaper prices of ferrovanadium from international market, he believes that mainstream prices of Chinese ferrovanadium would stay weak in the coming week.
With a regular trading volume of 40tpm, they sold about 450t in 2019 and only 180t in the first 6 months of this year. They sold about 30t in June and didn’t close any deals so far this month. They have about 20t of stocks in hands now, unchanged from last month.
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