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Strategies & Market Trends : Commodities - The Coming Bull Market -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: craig crawford who wrote (838)	10/10/2001 6:48:50 PM
From: craig crawford	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1643

Minor metals-Trade stays slow, cobalt settles down biz.yahoo.com By Martin Hayes Thursday October 4, 9:36 am Eastern Time LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) - Minor metals markets were generally slow and subdued this week, with the sector depressed by the worsening economic outlook which was exacerbated by the attacks in the United States last month. Not all metals were affected and, although most are trending lower, there are some bright spots for materials whose end-uses will not be hit too hard by the slowdown, traders said on Thursday. ``Business is still relatively quiet, but for some of our products it has held up quite well,'' one manufacturer said. Cobalt prices reverted to their usual structure from the situation last week when the higher grade flipped under lower grade . Antimony was holding steady but business was slack due to holidays this week in China which also affected many other metals, as the country is a major producer. Rhodium continued to fall back, in line with the other major platinum group metals (PGMs), while the downturn in high-tech product demand was hitting metals such as gallium and germanium . COBALT EDGING UP, WMC MAKES SOLID OCTOBER SALES The cobalt market had settled down after last week's gyrations, with prices showing signs of stability, as Australian producer WMC (Australia:WMC.AX - news) raised its offer and transacted solid clips of business above recent all-time lows. ``It (the market) is a bit patchy, but it is settling down and holding these levels,'' a trader said. On Wednesday, WMC said it sold 10 tonnes of high grade at $8.40/lb for October delivery in North America. Recent trades are above previous North American business at $7.95 on September 25, which was the lowest reported since the company began posting prices on its website in August 1999. Traders said the market appeared to have found a level where end-users were interested in picking up metal now. WMC has already sold some 70 tonnes of October cobalt, they said. ``I think we have seen the floor now and it is creeping up a bit -- offtake is good,'' another trader said. ANTIMONY HOLDS ITS GROUND, GALLIUM AND GERMANIUM SOFTEN Antimony held onto recent gains in quiet conditions, due to Chinese holidays this week and, although there may be some profit-taking, the market has bottomed out. Some traders said the sub-$1,000 a tonne levels in midsummer had provided a wake-up call to Chinese authorities, who were likely to tackle smuggling soon. Recently, there has been a clampdown on many smaller producers. Gallium prices continued their long-running retreat from the stratospheric levels in excess of $1,700 a kg seen in April, and were floundering close to $400/500. ``With the collapse of the telecoms market there is just no demand out there...and because of the state of the economy the take-up of 3G mobiles will be put back,'' a trader said. Germanium was under pressure from reduced demand from the fibre-optic sector -- in which germanium tetrachloride is a key component -- and prices were drifting slightly. This was highlighted this week, when French telecoms equipment firm Alcatel said it planned to cut roughly one third of its worldwide fibre optics and undersea network staff by the middle of next year. Cuts have already been made by companies such as Nortel (Toronto:NT.TO - news), Lucent (NYSE:LU - news) and Cisco (NasdaqNM:CSCO - news). In PGMs, rhodium prices continued to weaken, against a background of platinum and palladium dropping to levels last seen two years ago. ``It went up with the PGMs, and if the new car and catalyst demand is perceived not to be there it had to go down as well. Ruthenium is also going the same way,'' a trader said