“Suppliers in China seem to be trying their luck at putting every price up,” a European trader said. “There are not that many fundamental reasons for it, but I think they have taken note of general optimism in the commodity space and talks of a supercycle and are trying to ride the wave a bit.”
“Many Western consumers had grown accustomed to slowly declining prices over the past two or three years, coupled with easy and quick deliveries of purchases, so they had little incentive to carry much stock... some consumers were not prepared for the current situation,” a US based minor metals supplier said.
One minor metal to move up significantly on Friday was the European bismuth price, which shot up by 7% from the midweek assessment.
Fastmarkets assessed the price of bismuth 99.99% Bi min, in-whs Rotterdam at $3.15-3.30 per lb on Friday, up from $3.15-3.30...
