This is a summary of China metals output in April and forecast for May, with the output data for more metals to be available next Monday (May 13)

The recent bull run of minor metals such as antimony, tungsten, molybdenum and indium has prolonged the "spring" of minor metals.

In recent days, the domestic molybdenum market price has continued to rise, and the quotations of molybdenum raw materials have continued to rise; but the overall transaction has turned weaker due to market concerns.

Geopolitical conflicts and UK and US sanctions on Russian metals have made it difficult for antimony ores from foreign mines such as Russia to enter China. In addition, several mines in China had accidents before, and the environmental protection inspection team entered Hunan in May, which led to a short-term shortage of domestic antimony raw materials and a stronger reluctance to sell in the market.

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Last week, domestic molybdenum prices first rose rapidly driven by shipments from molybdenum mines; then, because downstream companies and steel mills were unable to transfer the pressure of sharply rising costs to downstream buyers in a timely manner, they were unwilling to accept this price level.

The market price of titanium dioxide remained basically stable last week. The mainstream transaction price of rutile titanium dioxide was 16,200-17,500 yuan/ton, and the mainstream quotation of anatase titanium dioxide was 15,000-15,500 yuan/ton.

China’s magnesium ingot exports rose by 38.4% YoY to 74,387 mt in Q1 of 2024.

The price of DMC in the online mall of DMC enterprises in Shandong decreased this week. The opening price this week was 13200 yuan/ton, down 300 yuan/ton. This week, the leading enterprises’ DMC quotations remained stable at 14,000 yuan/ton.

Customs data shows that China’s import volume of other antimony ores and concentrates in March 2024 was 4,101.79 tons. The import volume was slightly lower than the 4,516.44 tons imported in February and 4,385.04 tons imported in January.