Antimony is known as "industrial monosodium glutamate" and is used in industrial fields such as batteries, flame retardants, semiconductors, catalysts, and microcrystalline glass. The total global antimony product market is approximately 980 million US dollars. At present, the pricing of antimony resources is mainly based on spot products, supplemented by long-term cooperative prices. Due to market size limitations, antimony futures are difficult to operate for a long time and have been closed down successively.
01 Antimony Resource Pricing and Market Situation
Development of international antimony ore pricing system
One is that in the early days, there were few antimony producers and leading enterprises monopolized the market, leading the direction of antimony prices.
The global antimony ore market gradually formed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. At that time, countries such as the United States, Britain, and Germany began large-scale mining of antimony mines. During this period, the prices of antimony ore and its products were mainly determined by mining and processing enterprises through long-term contracts or spot transactions.
Secondly, due to market size limitations, antimony futures are difficult to maintain for the long term and have been cancelled.
Since the 1980s, major exchanges have successively launched spot and futures contracts for antimony mines. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange, New York Mercantile Exchange, Tokyo Mercantile Exchange, and other exchanges have successively launched antimony futures trading contracts, but due to scale limitations, they are difficult to develop in the long term and are gradually being cancelled.
Thirdly, the spot market and exchange quotes have become the main reference for antimony prices, with Yangtze River non-ferrous metal antimony quotes and European strategic small metal antimony quotes becoming important global reference indicators.
At present, antimony ore trading is mainly based on spot trading and long-term contracts. The price of antimony ore is mainly based on the spot prices and exchange quotes as a reference for pricing. International antimony prices mainly refer to European and Asian prices. The spot quotation of antimony in China varies depending on the production location. Among them, the spot price of antimony concentrate mainly refers to the spot prices of Hunan, Yunnan, and Guangxi provinces. Other antimony products such as antimony ingots and antimony oxide have different spot quotes based on their origin.
The exchange price is an important reference indicator for the quotation of metal antimony. Famous antimony quotes include: UK Metal Herald quotes, European Strategic Small Metals quotes, China Yangtze River Non ferrous Metals Exchange quotes, China Southern Rare and Precious Metals Exchange antimony quotes, etc.