GLOBAL VANADIUM WRAP: EU, US prices keep climbing but still trail Chinese market
Date: Nov 1, 2018
Vanadium prices in Europe and the United States continued their upward run in the week ended Friday October 26, amid constrained supply, while Chinese export activity fell dormant with prices remaining at a premium to the global markets.
- Chinese export price stabilizes on weak buying interest amid premium offer prices
- EU FeV prices firm despite limited activity
- EU V2O5 prices strengthen on renewed trading activity
- US FeV spot market spikes.
Chinese prices stagnate
China’s ferro-vanadium export price stabilized with only a few spot deals reported over the pricing week to October 26, with many traders preferring to sell their material in the domestic market due to the favorable prices available there.
Fastmarkets’ latest price assessment for ferro-vanadium, 78% minimum, fob China, was $130-140 per kg on October 25, unchanged from a week before.
“We offer our ferro-vanadium for export at around $140-145 [per kg] on the basis of domestic prices, and we won’t sell at a price below the given level,” a ferro-vanadium trader said. No new deals have been concluded because of resistance to high offers from the overseas market, he added.
“We are not worrying about the current situation because we know it is hard for foreign buyers to accept [our] prices, especially when the overseas market has lagged far behind the Chinese market. If no foreign buyers come to us, we will sell domestically,” the same trader said.
“Few foreign buyers have shown interest recently because China’s export price [for ferro-vanadium] is much higher than the price in the overseas market,” a second source told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets’ price assessment for vanadium pentoxide, min 98%, fob China, rose to $31-33 per lb on October 25 from $30-32 per lb a week earlier.
Few exporters were heard offering in the export market because of the favorable domestic prices.
“Offers would be around $33 [per lb] based on domestic prices, but we did not quote this week because sales prices in the domestic market were more favorable for us,” an exporter of vanadium pentoxide said.
