Manufacturers Accelerate Shipments, Gallium Prices Continue to Pull Back [SMM Spot Weekly Review]

SMM, December 27: Recently, the gallium market has consistently remained sluggish in terms of transactions. As the year-end approaches, from the perspective of end-use demand, apart from the semiconductor industry, the magnetic materials and PV industries show relatively small purchasing interest in gallium products, with the market clearly reflecting weak demand. Speculative funds have also largely exited the market, avoiding involvement in year-end low-value transactions. However, on the supply side, due to year-end inventory reduction targets, some manufacturers have continued to actively ship products and have made concessions on prices. As a result, market prices have shown a significant downward trend over the past period. Although there have been purchasing activities in the semiconductor and magnetic materials industries, overall buying volumes remain relatively small, with insufficient purchasing interest, and purchasing as needed being the main approach.

Market participants indicated that this week, some gallium manufacturers have noticeably increased their shipments, with one major manufacturer conducting consecutive rounds of bidding. The final transaction prices for these bidding projects have also seen significant declines, making the substantial drop in market prices expected. Many market participants noted that as the Chinese New Year in January approaches, coupled with logistics entering a halt well before the holiday, it is not ruled out that manufacturers may continue inventory reduction sales operations in January. The possibility of a rebound in gallium prices is relatively small. If manufacturers further increase shipments, the likelihood of gallium prices pulling back further becomes even greater. By the end of this week, the SMM 4N gallium average price stood at 2,075 yuan/kg, down 100 yuan/kg compared to the previous week.

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