SHANGHAI, Aug 1 (SMM) - According to customs data, China's ferromolybdenum imports were 121 mt in June, down 74.79% month on month. The huge decline was mainly caused by the weak demand in the domestic molybdenum market. As the bid solicitation volume of domestic steel mills significantly decreased, the market transactions decreased significantly.

According to SMM, the downstream demand of steel mills was still weak in June, hence the in-plant inventory of steel mills remained high and many steel mills reduced the production. Therefore, the steel mills had less demand for molybdenum. SMM data showed that the mainstream bid solicitation volume of domestic mainstream steel mills in June was about 9,500 mt, a decrease of about 21% from May. The decrease in demand led to a decrease in the purchase of ferromolybdenum. At the same time, the traders were wait-and-see amid the continuous decline of domestic molybdenum prices. Most traders tended to maintain low inventory, which also led to the reduction of ferromolybdenum imports to a certain extent.

In July, especially in the second half of the month, the international molybdenum prices fell more sharply than domestic prices under the influence of the international environment and weak downstream demand. Therefore, the international molybdenum had more price advantages, hence the domestic demand did not recover. As downstream enterprises tend to choose the imported ferromolybdenum, SMM expects that the import volume of ferromolybdenum will increase in July.