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MINOR METALS-China Antimony Prices up on Renewed Crackdown

SMM 2010/7/20 Scrap Copper Prices By Region 

SHANGHAI, July 20 -- Prices of antimony rose this month in Shanghai, after renewed crackdowns on polluting and inefficient producers squeezed supply in the market, traders and analysts said on Monday.
Prices of antimony ingot grade 99.65 rose 12 percent so far this month to 61,000 yuan to 62,000 yuan ($9,004 - $9,151) a tonne.
&quot;There is not a lot of supply in the market after the government started a new round of crackdowns,&quot; said a Shanghai-based trader.
The provincial government of Hunan, a key antimonyproducing region, forced hundreds of small producers to close shop earlier this year.
&quot;The government found out that some of the producers that survived the last round of crackdowns were still not up to standards, and has ordered them to halt production,&quot; said an analyst at Asian Metal based in Beijing.
The metal, used in fireproof paint, hit a record high of $9,550 a tonne in London in early May during the Hunan government's last effort to clean up the industry.
China issued the second batch of this year's export quotas for tungsten, antimony, tin, silver, indium and molybdenum, which is 40 percent of this year's total quotas, the Ministry of Commerce said on its website. (<a href="http://www.mofcom.gov.cn">www.mofcom.gov.cn</a>)
China has cut 2010 quotas on exports of tin, tungsten and antimony while maintaining quotas on exports of other minor metals, including silver and indium, from 2009.
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