----Interview with Lin Chen
Deputy General Manager
Hunan Zhenqiang Antimony Co., Ltd.
Located in Xikuangshan which is known as the "Antimony Capital of the World", Hunan Zhenqiang Antimony Co., Ltd. is a large-scale private antimony smelting enterprise. It is the third refined antimony and gold production company besides Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star and Chenzhou Mining to meet the national antimony industry access conditions. The company's business scope covers mining, smelting, processing and sales of antimony ore, as well as antimony ingot with an annual output of 6,000t and antimony trioxide with an annual output of 2,000t, which are exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea. In addition, the company also outputs 1,000kg of gold 99% annually. It enjoys a good reputation in the market and is an important producer in the antimony industry.
Asian Metal: Hello, Mr. Chen, welcome to our interview. Please briefly introduce your company.
Mr. Chen: Hunan Zhenqiang Antimony Co., Ltd., located in Xikuangshan, the "Antimony Capital of the World", is a large-scale private antimony smelting enterprise. It is the third refined antimony and gold production company besides Hsikwangshan Twinkling Star and Chenzhou Mining to meet the national antimony industry access conditions. The company's business scope covers Besides the mining, processing, smelting, processing and sales of antimony ore, our company also produces refined antimony with an annual output of 6,000t and antimony trioxide with an annual output of 2,000t, which are exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea. Our company also produces gold 99% with an annual output of 1,000kg. Honesty and trustworthiness are the company's consistent business philosophy. Zhenqiang Antimony has established a complete quality management system and has passed the ISO9001-2000 quality management certification in 2006. It has been rated as the "Advanced Enterprise in Credibility" and the "Large Taxpayer" for many times. Ms. Shuyun Wang, the company's legal representative, has been awarded continuously as the "Excellent Entrepreneur", the "Star Entrepreneur" and other honorary titles. Zhenqiang Antimony enjoys a good reputation in the market and is an important production enterprise in the antimony industry.
Asian Metal: What do you think of current supply status of antimony resources both in and outside China as well as the inventory situation facing producers?
Mr. Chen: At present, the supply of antimony resource is tight both in China and overseas regions. In 2023, the supply of overseas antimony resources in China mainly came from Russia, Tajikistan, Australia, Myanmar, and Bolivia, with total imports in 2023 up by 43% from in 2022 but down by 17% from the normal level before 2020. The international antimony ore market witnessed limited and dispersed reserves, so it is difficult to see notable growths in international antimony ore supply. In China, the supply of antimony resource is mainly concentrated in state-owned enterprises, while privately-owned companies bear pressure from environmental protection and production safety policies, leading to difficulties such as high mining costs and low ore production rates. Both state-owned and prive companies face decreasing antimony ore reserves year by year and slipping ore grades in China. Antimony producers in China hold limited stocks and their inventory ratio stay at a generally low level. Currently in Hunan, each antimony product producer holds less than 500 tons of antimony ingot stocks, down by nearly 50% from the normal level in the previous years. Limited stocks held by antimony producers in China is one of the major reasons for firm antimony prices.
Asian Metal: China's antimony resources account for over 60% of the world's total reserve, what do you think are the main reasons for antimony supply shortage in the recent years in China?
Mr. Chen: From the personal point of view, I think there are such reasons. The first reason is the decreasing antimony crude ore grade. Antimony metal is a non-renewable resource. After many years' mining, the mines face growing exploitation and mining difficulties, as well as decreasing crude ore grade. Secondly, mining companies face strict environmental protection requirements and have to go through strict and long approval process on mining license and environmental impact assessment. Thirdly, the commercial antimony resources in China keeps decreasing year by year coupled with slipping operation rates. Fourthly, China's imports of overseas antimony concentrates shrank notably due to COVID-19 and increased overseas consumption. Lastly, China is transferring from a leading producer of antimony to a major antimony consumer with the changes in domestic policies and overseas supply structure.
Asian Metal: As the traditional and typical consumption field, how do you view the current demand from the flame retardant industry?
Mr. Chen: Depressed by the slowdowns in automotive and real estate industries, the demand for flame retardant is relatively weak, but the overall demand remains stable. According to statistics, the ABS polyester production in the first ten months of 2023 rose by about 36% year on year, while the polyester chips production fell by about 3% year on year. In the recent years, under the pressure of cost and environmental protection, halogen-free flame retardant products replaced some antimony-based flame retardant products, which had some impact on the demand in the terminal market. However, currently, the use of antimony-based raw materials by large domestic plants and brands has not been greatly affected.
Asian Metal: What do you think about the impact of increasing demand in the PV market on antimony prices?
Mr. Chen: At present, the demand in the PV market is still rising strongly. Against the backdrop of current national policies such as carbon neutrality and peak carbon emissions, and relying on the support from the national government's PV policies, PV market gets strong support. According to relevant industry institutions, the global scale of PV manufacturing would keep expanding at a high speed from 2024 to 2025. Global installed PV capacity was 411GW in 2023, up by 59% year on year, and is expected to increase further by 16% year on year to 474GW in 2024. Preliminary statistics show that the consumption of antimony metal in the PV industry reached 25,000-30,000t in 2023, and might increase to around 35,000-40,000t in 2024. In the current context of tight supply of antimony resources, the increasing demand in the PV field is undoubtedly the strongest support for the prices of antimony products.
Asian Metal: How do you expect the price trend of antimony ingot in the first quarter of 2024?
Mr. Chen: I think prices of antimony products would go up steadily in the first quarter of 2024 based on the current operating rates of antimony producers and their stocks. On the one hand, there will be some demand as end users and traders need to refill stocks at the year-end; on the other hand, the supply of antimony resources will shrink further in China as miners halt production for regular annual maintenance. We expect that the mainstream prices of antimony ingot would stay at RMB84,000-85,000/t (USD11,742-11,882/t), with the possibility of exceeding RMB85,000/t (USD11,882/t), in the first quarter of 2024, and if the economy and terminal consumption recover, we believe antimony prices would break through the peak level of 2023.
Asian Metal: Antimony ingot prices have been stable at over RMB80,000/t (USD11,190/t) for a long period of time. What do you think are the factors that would push antimony prices to rise further in the future?
Mr. Chen: As far as I am concerned, the factors that would drive the prices of antimony products to rise now are as follows. The first one is the PV products, just as I mentioned before. The demand for PV products increases steadily at present and that for sodium pyroantimonate follows suit, so PV products can be seen as an important factor for the increase of prices of antimony products. The second one is energy-storage battery. The R&D on antimony battery is conducted well, especially for antimony-calcium battery, of which the technology breakthrough has been achieved. The demand for antimony resources will surge as long as antimony battery is in massive production. The third one is special steel. Antimony can be widely used in nuclear industry, chemical equipment, automobile parts and other fields as it could improve the hardness, strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance of steel. The fourth one is semi-conductor industry. The use of high-purity antimony and other antimony deep-processing products in cutting-edge technology increases gradually at present.
Asian Metal: Would you please share with us your future plans about major products and deep-processing business?
Chen: In addition to our current major products such as antimony ingot, antimony trioxide and gold, we still have plan to move further into the antimony deep-processing business in the coming years and step up efforts to extend our antimony-gold industrial chain, aiming to grow into a modernized antimony-gold enterprise by hard working as well as the pursuit of excellence and the bravery to overcome difficulties.
Asian Metal: Thanks again for your sharing. We wish your company a prosperous business and greater success.
