Date: Apr 18, 2018
The vanadium markets in Europe and the United States retreated last week, with traders continuing to sell off inventories to protect against weakening prices in the Chinese market as well as slowing spot market demand.
- Chinese ferro-vanadium, vanadium pentoxide prices fall on softer demand outside of China.
- European ferro-vanadium market slides on pressure from quiet spot market
- European V2O5 prices decline amid softening Chinese export prices
- Foreign weakness drives down US ferro-vanadium prices.
Chinese fob China ferro-vanadium and vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) prices fell amid softening demand outside China.
Metal Bulletin’s latest assessment for fob China ferro-vanadium min 78% was $67-70 per kg on Thursday April 12, down from $68-70 one week ago, and the benchmark quotation for V2O5 fell to $14.50-15.60 per Ib from $14.50-15.80 in the previous week.
“Demand from overseas market is softening and I lowered my offers [for ferro-vanadium] to $67 [per kg] from previous $69,” one major exporter told Metal Bulletin.
“No deals have been concluded from us over the past week, but in the last week in March and in early April, we sold tens of tonnes of the cargoes,” the above exporter added.
Exporters of V2O5 also adjusted their offers lower to attract orders seeing the weak demand and falling prices in Europe.
One exporter who concluded a deal at $15.80 per kg 10 days ago quoted $15.60 on Thursday, and claimed that he has not received deal over the past week.
Meanwhile, the European ferro-vanadium market continued to soften, as traders continued to take profits in light of declining prices in the Chinese market.
Metal Bulletin assessed spot prices for ferro-vanadium, delivered duty-paid in Europe at $68.30-69.50 per kg on Friday, down from $68.30-70 per kg on April 11.
Traders continued to drive prices down in an effort to secure business amid a sluggish spot market environment.
“Traders have been bringing prices down. It is clear they are a bit nervous about the market slowing down and don’t want to get caught with high-priced inventories,” a supplier source told Metal Bulletin.
