Price of Tungsten Products on July 22

       Tungsten prices in China started to show signs of rebound in the week began on Monday July 15, 2019. Although the negative atmosphere of demand and capital still affected market transactions, product prices appeared to reach the cost line. Under the expectation of raw material products cuts and increased demand of downstream, smelting factories and traders raised their willingness of higher offers.

The positive trend of this round of price rebound is mainly from supports of supply and cost sides. There are six signals of tight supply of tungsten raw materials.

On May 17, under the initiative of the China Tungsten Industry Association, ten tungsten association members agreed to reduce production of tungsten concentrates by no less than 10% during the year.

On June 5, seventeen state-owned ammonium paratungstate producers agreed to suspend production for no less than 15 days from June, or to reduce production by no less than 30%.

Affected by the flood season in May-June, the production of tungsten mines such as Dajishan, Tumei, Yikeng and Diaotang reduced largely. Jiangxi Tungsten cut by about 15-20% of tungsten concentrate in the first half of the year.

On July 8, the China Tungsten Association issued a document calling for strengthening the industry's self-discipline and rational view of the market. Due to the decline in the grade of tungsten resources, the trend of natural production reduction in most tungsten mines continued to show. Tungsten mines in the south affected by heavy rains reduced or stopped production, so the supply became tight. The data showed the output of tungsten concentrate in the country from January to May was 41,391 tons, an increase of 1.97% year-on-year, and the growth rate was 9.24 percentage points lower than that in January-March.

On July 15, the first batch of central ecological environmental protection inspectors stationed in major tungsten producing areas and will launch a one-month inspection. The main production areas of Fujian and China's Minmetals, a major tungsten resource, were on the first inspector list.

In mid-July, Jiangwu H.C. Starck announced to stop the production of ammonium paratungstate.