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Tight supply, solar need drive antimony costs to record high

Prices of antimony, a strategic metal used in flameretardants, batteries and munitions, are increasing to record highs as solar sector need outstrips supply, triggering a. broad deficit with little indication of alleviating, smelters and analysts. say.

The rise in costs, which market individuals expect to. persist, highlights the West's vulnerability in depending on top. manufacturer China for essential minerals and could likewise force end-users. to find alternatives for some applications.

Antimony ingot in China climbed to a record 127,500 yuan. ($ 17,588.88) per metric load on May 29, up 56% in 2024, data from. the Shanghai Metals Exchange revealed. European costs have likewise. reached a record $21,000 a ton, up 75% this year, Fastmarkets. data revealed.

Internationally, decreasing ore grades and depleting mines are. squeezing antimony supply, Chinese investment bank CICC said in. a report.

The rise has been almost totally supply driven. It is not. clear when the supply restrictions will enhance, said CRU. analyst Chetan Soni, pointing out different supply disruptions in. Myanmar, Oman, Tajikistan and Vietnam.

China, among the world's top antimony manufacturers and users. for more than a century, accounted for 48% of worldwide antimony. mine production last year, U.S. Geological Study data showed,. although its reserves fell to 640,000 loads, down from 950,000. loads in 2012.

Antimony materials from Russia, the world's fifth-largest. manufacturer, have been interrupted by Western sanctions over Moscow's. intrusion of Ukraine, producers, traders and analysts said. Russia accounted for 24% of China's antimony supply last year,. but Chinese customs information programs there were no shipments in March. and April.

A sales supervisor at Chinese smelter who decreased to be. recognized stated that producers of finished atimony who do not. have their own ore materials and need to acquire from in other places are. running at just 25% capacity.

The issue exists is not adequate ore, said a sales. manager at a 2nd Chinese smelter.

Increasing demand for arms and ammo due to wars and. geopolitical stress is likely to see tightening up control and. stockpiling of antimony ore, analysts at China Securities said. in a note.

Christopher Ecclestone, primary and mining strategist at. Hallgarten & & Co, stated private western military purchasing is. also driving antimony need. The supply crisis is not going. away and the military have bottomless pockets, he said.

China Merchants Securities projections antimony need from. the photovoltaic sector, where the metal is utilized to improve the. performance of solar batteries, will increase to 68,000 tons in 2026. from 16,000 lots in 2021, with the sector's share in total. consumption rising to 39% from 11%. It anticipates the supply gap. will broaden to 21,000 lots by 2026 from 8,000 heaps last year.

It's basically challenging to see a quick increase in supply,. however the market at the moment most likely needs in excess of 10,000. tons of material to cut the deficits, stated Nils Backeberg, an. analyst at consultancy Project Blue, who said he does not anticipate. prices to be preserved at $20,000 per ton over the longer term,. but expects long-lasting levels in the $12,000-$ 14,000 range.

At the current rates, we will see effects to the need. market, he said. There will be substitutions, there will be. options being used, but there will be some time in getting. those options.

Rising antimony prices have pushed the share prices of. Chinese manufacturers including Hunan Gold, Tibet Huayu. Mining and Guangxi Huaxi Non-Ferrous up. between 66% and 95% in 2024.

More supply takes years to reach fruition, though. federal governments are making efforts to find brand-new sources.

In April, Perpetua Resources Corp got a letter. of interest from the U.S. Export-Import Bank for a loan up to. $ 1.8 billion to develop an antimony and gold mine in Idaho, part. of Washington's efforts to offset China's crucial minerals. supremacy.

Perpetua's Stibnite mine would be the only U.S. antimony. source and according to the company might meet 35% of U.S. demand in its first 6 years. The Department of Defense has. committed nearly $60 million to fund its allowing procedure,. which has lasted eight years, to boost U.S. production for. bullets and other weapons.

(source: Reuters)