Antimony alert. On Thursday, August 16, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce announced its intention to restrict its exports of this critical metal starting September 15. In concrete terms, the sale abroad of a host of raw materials related to antimony (including ore and various high-purity metal forms) as well as various technologies for processing extra-hard materials will be subject to obtaining a prior export license from the Chinese authorities, which must specify the items exported and the end customer. A resumption of control that aims, according to Beijing, to allow China to “safeguard its national security and interests and meet international obligations such as non-proliferation.”
Critical for solar panels and ammunition
In a trade war with Washington over semiconductors, Beijing has been multiplying this type of operation for a year, particularly concerning gallium and germanium, rare earth processing technologies, as well as certain forms of graphite. This time, the restrictions may affect not only sectors linked to the ecological transition, but also a large number of other industries. Thus, while antimony is critical for the production of solar panels (where it is used to clarify and strengthen the protective glass of the modules), it remains mainly used in the form of antimony trioxide, a white powder that is used as a flame retardant almost everywhere, particularly in plastics but also, for example, in the textiles of automobile seats.
Other notable dependencies: this ultra-hard metal is also found in the production of lead batteries, as a catalyst for polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and to manufacture various munitions and military equipment, where it serves as a hardening agent. In the United States, these uses in defense, which remain minority, are worrying as the world seems to be entering a new arms race.
Prices to double in 2024
From a mining perspective, antimony is generally extracted as a co-product of gold, silver or mercury mines. Today, China produces almost half of the world’s antimony and has the largest reserves. Tajikistan and Russia are also major producers… This concentration has led the European Commission to consider antimony as critical without interruption since 2011! While some recycling and especially refining plants exist on the Old Continent – including the French sites of the American group AMG Critical Materials (Sica in Aisne, and Produits chimiques de Lucette in Pays de la Loire) – Europe is ultra-dependent on imports of ore and ingots and sources its supplies in particular from Turkey and Bolivia, medium-sized producers who could benefit from the situation.
Due to rising demand (driven in particular by the photovoltaic boom according to the Fastmarket consultancy), production difficulties in China (whose production has been divided by three since a peak in 2007) and the sanctions weighing on Russia, antimony prices have doubled since the beginning of the year to reach an all-time high of nearly $23,500 per tonne of 99.6% pure oxide in early August. If worried users are looking to stock up, the Chinese announcement could further push up prices, particularly for high-purity products, estimates the specialist consultancy Project Blue, which points out that China, already a net importer of antimony ore, had already started to restrict its ingot exports in order to meet the needs of its refiners.
Source: www.usinenouvelle.com
