"A recent Zoom video hosted by the Argus Metals Group shares your opinion that APT prices have peaked and will now begin to taper off during the course of this year. " One of our foreign customers said yesterday.
APT, the main tungsten raw material, according to which the tungsten is also priced. These days, China's tungsten market is adventuring a tight supply of concentrate and APT (ammonium paratungstate). A lot of traders have to raise their carbide products price due to higher cost pressure.
Let's look at it in a larger scale. During 2011~ 2021, the price of tungsten products in China has experienced four peaks and three troughs. The overall market characteristics are obviously affected by both market factors and non-market factors, and at the same time, due to the dual constraints of domestic and international market demand, the market price of tungsten products has not fluctuated that much in the past ten years. It seems that the market has been becoming more and more rational.
We see the highest peak of the price was about 156.5 thousand yuan/ton in May 2011. The other three peaks were in July 2013, September 2017 and August last year, and the prices were 147 thousand yuan per ton, 120 thousand yuan per ton, and 114 thousand yuan per ton, respectively. It is obvious that after the trough in August 2019 (price 72 thousand yuan per ton) due to tense Sino-US relations, Pan-Asian inventory concerns, decline in end demand for automobiles, and after the epidemic in 2020, during 2021 China's economy has been recovering strongly, driving market consumption. Hence the price of tungsten products showed an overall upward trend through the year of 2011. At the beginning of 2022, the tungsten price has maintained the trend.
An old Chinese saying goes, extremes meet, that is, when a thing reaches its extreme, it reverses its course. So no wonder there is also some positive voices, or we'd better say expectations, just as the above foreign customer told us. Anyway, it is true that we should always wish for the best and prepare for the worst. What's your opinion on this rising tungsten price?
