End of Forum

On 20-21 April 2015, Asian Metal successfully hosted the 3rd World Antimony Forum in Changsha, Hunan, China. Six speakers delivered keynote speeches at the conference: Yusheng Gu, general manager of Dongfeng Group; Helen Dyakina, deputy director of Voyager Group; Shaoji Duan, president of Lengshuijiang City Antimony Industry Association; Jianqiang Li, general manager of Jiangxi Tonggu Eryuan Chemical Co., Ltd.; Donghua Liu, president and general manager of Hunan Jiary Industries Co., Ltd.; Then Kohei Yamada, director of Damo Resources Pte Ltd., Donghua Liu, president of Hunan Jiary Industries Co., Ltd., Xingu Yang, chairman of Hunan ZhongNan Antimony & Tungsten Trading Co., Ltd., Zhiqiang Yin, sales manager of Changsha Branch of Meiwa Corporation and Youmin Cui, general manager of Changsha Yexing Antimony Industry Co., Ltd., discussed and shared their opinions on hot topics within the antimony industry. Nearly 80 representatives from home and abroad attended the conference.

Proceedings officially got under way at 9am on 20 April. Mr. Gu Yusheng, general manager of Dongfeng Group made a speech entitled “Review and Outlook for the Antimony Market” as first speaker. In 2014, Fanya Exchange started trading antinomy metal, and had accumulated around 20,000t of antimony inventories by the end of December 2014. In due course, the Chinese Ministry of Environmental Protection issued Discharge Standards on Industrial Pollutants for Tin, Antimony and Mercury. The mining companies, and smelters in particular, faced pressures over operation, security, environmental protection, tech innovation and production applications. Every year nearly 30,000-40,000 tonnes of antimony oxide 99.5% extracted from scraps, which had been stockpiled for many years in foreign countries, hit the market at low prices; therefore, the prices of the raw materials, antimony ingots and antimony oxide, continued to witness a reversal. As for 2015, Fanya Exchange has made the market uncertain, but it will not have any influence on the liquid market in the short term as the material in its inventory is #2 antimony ingots. The demand for alternatives to antimony has reached a peak and the related markets have stabilized. The faltering production of private antimony smelters in Lengshuijiang has promoted a pickup in the price. The economies of countries including Europe, the U.S. and Japan are recovering slowly, and their demand for antimony ingot seems stable. End-users and traders are holding low inventory levels and the price of antimony ingots will mostly move up with some fluctuations in 2015.

At 09:30am, Ms. Helen Dyakina, deputy director of Voyager Group, a Russian company, delivered a speech entitled “The Russian antimony market and its influence on the global market”. In the speech, she outlined the development status of 10 antimony mines and antimony metal smelting enterprises in Russia and the CIS countries. The dressing plant of the Voyager Group has two flotation production lines and one gravity line for processing antimony ores and flotation of antimony concentrate containing antimony 50%min. The group has a smelting plant in Krasnokamensk. Russian antimony ore resources are mainly distributed across Sakha (Yakutia), Krasnoyarsk and Baykalsk. China is the main export destination for Russian antimony ore, and it is anticipated that the export volume may decline in the next few years based on the Russian smelting plan and the amount of smelting plants outside of China. The imports of antimony ore from Russia into China in 2014 accounted for more than 26% of the total figure. Although the ruble depreciated, new opportunities arose as a result of the economic crisis. The operating cost was reduced following the ruble devaluation, and included reductions in fuel, power and labor costs.

After the coffee break, Mr. Duan Shaoji, chairman of Sanjiu Antimony Industry and president of Lengshuijiang City Antimony Industry Association delivered a report, “A brief analysis on the development of private antimony smelters in Hunan”. Private antimony ingot smelters in Lengshuijiang had stopped production on 1 April 2015 and were starting to accept the need for integration, which has been the cause of much attention in the industry. Mr. Duan reviewed the development of private antimony ingot smelters in Hunan following changes in the antimony market, and analyzed the existing problems faced by private antimony ingot smelters including weak anti-risk capabilities, financing difficulties, inconsistent raw material supply and product marketing channels, and cutthroat competition between enterprises. Faced with these problems, Mr. Duan indicated a way out for the private antimony smelting enterprises in Hunan. Firstly, to regulate and integrate; secondly, to strengthen the cooperation and communication with state-owned mid-or large-sized antimony groups and companies with a view to discussing working together on technological innovations and ensuring they complement each other's advantages and industrial upgrades. All the antinomy enterprises should work together to realize a great-leap-forward in development of the antimony industry in China, with the country becoming the global leader of the antimony industry, and then China will be able to influence the antimony industry and have the right to set prices for antimony products.

At 11:30am, Mr. Li Jianqiang, general manager of Jiangxi Tonggu Eryuan Chemical Co., Ltd. introduced “Demand and Supply of Ethylene Glycol Antimony“. The capacity of ethylene glycol antimony reached saturation point in 2012 with the rapid development of the polyester industry. The market demand for ethylene glycol antimony in 2014 was about 10,100 tonnes, while the domestic capacity of producers had reached 20,000 tonnes. Most enterprises have suffered as a result but continue moving forward strongly despite little profit during a period of intense and aggressive competition. And the oversupply within the market for domestic ethylene glycol antimony production will remain unchanged for quite some time. The saturated market will be dominated by prices and consumers, so new enterprises in this industry will be the victims of overlapping investments. However, Mr. Li stated that although the Chinese polyester industry has seen a surplus, the global polyester industry remains on an upward curve with growth of 4-5%, and therefore, the demand for ethylene glycol antimony will see growth of 3-4%; room for consumption still exists, while the global market remains competitive as well.

At 2pm, Mr. Liu Donghua, president and general manager of Hunan Jiary Industries Co., Ltd. expressed his own opinion on the supply and demand of Chinese antimony ore. He indicated that imported antimony ore would account for over 50% of the total material within the Chinese antimony ingot smelting industry in the near future. Although the antimony ingot market fluctuates over a wide range, the import volume for antimony ore has remained mostly stable, which indicates that China has a lack of raw materials and the consumption of antimony ingots is stable, cautiously pointing to an optimistic future for antimony ingot prices. He expected that antimony ingots and antimony ore overall will witness an upward trend in the next three to five years. For different overseas ore sources, Mr. Liu proposed some targeted investing advice. He advocated establishing a global antimony resource information base with more targeted overseas investment conducted under national macro strategic guidance, forming a complete supply chain by combining Chinese antimony industry advantages with overseas resources.

Then, Mr. Andre Booyzen, general manager of Mandalay Resources, delivered a speech on the topic of “Antimony Ore Resources in Australia”. Mandalay Resources creates exceptional shareholder value through the acquisition of undervalued assets that can rapidly become cash generative, self fund exploration, establish and maintain high operating margins and return cash to shareholders within a planned period of time. The output of antimony metal in 2014 was 3,639 tonnes. The main antimony deposits are located in Costerfield, Australia, with an antimony mining history of 150 years. Costerfield Mine is a successful antimony mining model in Australia. Mr. Andre Booyzen also introduced some detailed information covering antimony resources, reserves, business performance, and outputs of gold and antimony in 2014, as well as volumes of beneficiation in the Augusta mining area.

After the coffee break, seven guests including Kohei Yamada, director of Damo Resources Pte Ltd., Yusheng Gu, general manager of Dongfeng Group, Donghua Liu, president of Hunan Jiary Industries Co.,Ltd., Shaoji Duan, chairman of Sanjiu Antimony Industry, Xingu Yang, chairman of Hunan ZhongNan Antimony & Tungsten Trading Co., Ltd., Zhiqiang Yin, sales manager of Changsha Branch of Meiwa Corporation and Youmin Cui, general manager of Changsha Yexing Antimony Industry Co., Ltd., discussed and shared their opinions in terms of the following topics: the status quo in China’s antimony mining, the international antimony ore business, marketing plans of private smelters in Lengshuijiang after integration, consumption of antimony oxide abroad and supply and demand of antimony catalysts.

At 5pm, the 3rd World Antimony Forum held by Asian Metal ended successfully.

Asian Metal has successfully hosted the antimony forum three times, and we are very grateful for the participation of all the enterprises in the antimony industry. We look forward to meeting you at the 4th World Antimony Forum!