Campine well positioned to tackle new Chinese restrictions, which will impact global antimony markets
21 August 2024 - 5:00PM
UK Regulatory
Campine well positioned to tackle new Chinese restrictions, which
will impact global antimony markets
Campine well positioned to tackle new Chinese
restrictions, which will impact global antimony markets
Regulated information – August 21st
2024 - 09:00
On August 15th, China announced to
impose export restrictions on a range of antimony substances,
including antimony ore, metal, and oxides.
As one of the worlds largest consumers of
antimony, Campine does not expect supply issues on the short term.
“We have reduced our antimony metal sourcing from China to below 5%
and we are partly supplied internally through our antimony
recycling.” states Hans Vercammen, Campine’s Specialty Chemicals
division director and chair of the international antimony
association i2a.
Campine uses antimony in several of its
businesses and with a consumption between 10 and 12 thousand tonnes
per year, it is the largest consumer of this metal outside of
China. Antimony is for instance used in the Specialty Chemical
division to produce the chemical antimony trioxide, as well as for
its lead-alloy formulations in the Circular Metals division.
Since several years Campine has positioned
itself as a pioneer in antimony recycling. Today about 15% of its
total antimony needs are already generated through its own
proprietary recovery processes. “The current antimony prices and
this decision of China, prove us right in having invested in
antimony recycling processes” says CEO De Vos, who adds that “We
are currently developing the 3rd generation of antimony
recycling, which should allow us in time to account for 50% of our
needs, and at current prices returns are even more promising”. Last
week, antimony metal prices have reached 24,000 $/tonne, which is
double than the average of about
12,000 $/tonne in 2023.
As all details of China’s decision have yet to
be uncovered, Campine is closely monitoring all aspects of the new
ruling. Whilst short term price spikes and continued tightness for
antimony can be expected, Campine is confident it will be able to
continue to serve all its markets as normal. “We could even have to
increase supply to overseas markets like the USA and Japan as the
Chinese antimony oxide restrictions could impact those regions, who
rely heavily on Chinese products” Vercammen adds. Import trade
statistics confirm that market share of Chinese antimony oxide
suppliers in the USA has already dropped from 72% in 2023 to 63% in
the first half of 2024.
The European Union, as well as the US
administration have classified antimony as a critical material in
their respective Critical Raw Materials Acts. Campine hopes that
European legislators will continue to support and subsidise
innovative antimony recycling initiatives to assure future
availability of this critical material for the industry.
Antimony(trioxide) from Campine is used in flame
retardants, pigments, PET polymers, and in lead-alloys for car and
energy storage batteries.
Campine will issue its 2024 first semester financial results on
September 2nd.
For further information you can contact Karin
Leysen:
tel. +32 14 60 15 49 / email: Karin.Leysen@campine.be
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