China Commodity Marketplace
The domestic tungsten market has been stable at low levels recently. Upward momentum in tungsten prices has been slow after reaching bottom and consolidating at the low-end. Meanwhile, miners are showing a tendency to hold firm on prices, represented by declining transactions at low-price levels. At present, wolframite (65% grade) mainstream quotations are at RMB 73,000~74,000/standard t, sheelite (65% grade) are at RMB 72,000~73,000/standard t and tungsten concentrates (50~55% grade) are at RMB 68,000~71,000/standard t. Downstream smelters are having difficulties in securing low-price concentrate supplies and are having to increase their offer prices slightly.
Domestic APT prices have also been stable at low end, with mainstream prices sitting at RMB 112,000/t. There has been a serious inversion of costs over prices since the beginning of 2019, and the recent slight rebound in APT prices will hardly reverse the situation. As a result, APT smelters are keen to increase quotations, lifting them to over RMB 112,000/t by cash.
