Beijing, China -- (SBWIRE) -- 02/23/2011 -- Antimony is not only a kind of important strategic metal but also a sort of rare metal with limited reserves. Presently, the antimony production in the world converges in the countries and regions such as China, Bolivia, South Africa, etc. What’s remarkable is that, during 2008-2009, China’s output of antimony accounted for above 90% of global total. In this sense, the changes in Chinese policies for antimony industry exert great impact on global antimony market.

According to the notice unveiled by Ministry of Land and Resources of the People’s Republic of China on March 15, 2010, the State decided to further carry the management and control on total exploitation of antimony ores, and at the same time to in principle suspend the approvals for the prospecting and exploitation of new antimony mines before June 30, 2011. In March, 2010, Leng Shui Jiang city, the largest antimony production base in China, enhanced the reshuffle of antimony smelting industry, raising the threshold for the production scale of antimony smelting enterprise to 50 million tons/year on the one hand and having closed nearly a hundred illegal antimony smelting enterprises on the other hand. Such policy adjustments have hindered the growth of domestic output of antimony and further intensified the tight supply of antimony worldwide since 2009. The price of antimony rose to RMB81,000/ton at the end of 2010, 2.8-fold that at the beginning of 2009.

Chinese antimony industry that has been out of the impact from financial crisis will embrace greater development opportunities in 2011. First, the ever rising price of antimony promotes the profitability of antimony product manufacturing enterprises; then, the State has closed down the antimony manufacturers that failed to meet the standards in scale and environmental production, which favors the convergence of limited antimony ore resources towards superior enterprises.

Antimony oxide is the primary product of Chinese antimony industry now that the downstream flame retardants are massively needy of antimony oxide. In 2009, the consumption demand of flame retardants for antimony oxide takes 50% of total consumption demand of antimony. Currently, the key enterprises in China antimony industry are mostly involved in this field, including Shanxing Antimony, Chenzhou Mining Group, Yunnan Muli Antimong Industry and GuangXi YoungSun Chemicals, etc., of which Shanxing Antimony and Chenzhou Mining Group are the largest and second biggest manufacturing enterprises of antimony oxide all over the world respectively. In the field of other antimony-base products, the leading antimony enterprise in Guangxi –China Tin Group enjoys conspicuous market superiority in antimony deep-processing sectors like antimony alloys, and in 2010 the export quotas of metal antimony and antimony products obtained by the company occupied 49% of national export quotas in the same year.

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