Tungsten concentrate Chinese price rises by 3% in early January 2010.

Rising downstream prices (retailer's pricing) is the catapult behind market optimism. Yesterday the price of tungsten concentrate rose by over 2000 yuan. In December tungsten was selling for 69,000 yuan and today it is being reported from a major tungsten producer in the province of Hunan that tungsten is selling between 71,000-72,000 yuan.


Some producers are confident that the price of tungsten is about move further up in the near future and therefore are considering to remove their tungsten from today's market.

There is the real possibility the Chinese government may cancel the 8% VAT exemption which at this time the private Chinese producers are benefiting from. If the government decides on this course of action, this will put more pressure on the price of tungsten as the private tungsten producers will be forced to raise their prices due to the 8% tax expense.

What does this mean for Malaga "America's Only Tungsten Producer" ? Well simply this latest event in the world of tungsten equates to a higher APT (ammonium paratungstate) price. On December 11, 2009 Chinese APT was selling between $185-$190 MTU (metric ton unit) and today it is selling for $194-$195 MTU.

In my opinion, this latest move out of China is significant as we have to take into consideration many western buyers are still not back from the holidays; next week could be quite interesting in the world of tungsten.

If the west doesn't keep up to the market's demand on a higher price, China has an enormous buyer waiting in the wings...their domestic market...