Rising vanadium prices spur TPCO to put off purchasing ferrovanadium
Date: Sep 28, 2018
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 28 Sep 18 – The current Chinese vanadium market is experiencing a fever of price increases, with prices expected to soon top the highest ever in late 2004. Under such a background, purchasing conditions for consumers are increasingly deteriorating. For this reason, downstream steel mills successively put off their purchases or try to replace ferrovanadium with ferroniobium. A source from Tijian Pipe (Group) Corporation (TPCO) told Asian Metal that the company has put off its late-September purchase plan to after the National Day holiday, with no specific date decided yet.
The source said, “The current market is in such a disorder that we definitely won’t make purchases now. Last week, suppliers quoted ferrovanadium 50%min at RMB350,000/t (USD101.76/kg V), but now at a level close to RMB410,000/t (USD119.20/kg V). Prices go up so much within such a short time, which we believe is absolutely an evilly meant move for speculation.” The company originally planned to purchase ferrovanadium in late September, but as suppliers quote the material in such a disorderly way, the company decided to put off the purchase and depends on its stocks to maintain operation, and meanwhile also seeks to use niobium in place of vanadium.
