Indium: steady demand, but stagnant price

摘要

News from Taiwan says Nippon Mining & Metals, Mitsui Mining & Smelting, Tosoh and Samsung Coming all plan to expand their ITO capacities. And there is estimated to be an additional 400tpy of ITO capacity in 2006. Samsung Corning recently forecasted a 25-40 percent growth of ITO demand in 2006, rising from 640 tonnes this year to 800-900 tonnes. However, indium price has recently shown a trend of fall despite the steady demand for the metal. Refined indium is now quoted at US 810-890 dollars/kg in Metal Bulletin, compared to US 980-1,050 dollars/kg a month ago. Chinese indium producers had been optimistic about the market, and now it seems hard for them to prevent the price from drifting down. Ms. Feng Juncong, senior analyst with Antaike, says that there are mainly two reasons for the price fall: emergence of new Chinese producers stock depletion of Japanese users.