Chinese ferrotungsten export prices have been creeping up since the conclusion of the spring festival in January. Low prices in the fourth quarter of 2008 pushed many key tungsten producers to stop operations. The same miners have announced, that despite the current trend, they do not plan to resume mining and production in short term.
Sandvik AB of Sweden has agreed to buy Wolfram Bergbau- und Huetten-GmbH Nfg. KG of Austria. Sandvik is the worlds biggest maker of metal cutting tools. Sandvik is Wolfram's largest customer, buying tungsten from the mine and processing plant.
Holiday retail sales were worse than anticipated. The jewelry market was hardest hit, luxury goods sales were down as much as 34%. However, the new Tungsten jewelry market faired exceptionally well over this holiday season.
Tungsten, like all other metals has witnessed a precipitous price drop. Data coming out of China, producers of around 85% of the world’s tungsten, shows that most of the Chinese Ferro-tungsten makers have either shut down or decreased output.
Queensland Ores fell 67 percent to 1.1 Australian cents after stopping production at a tungsten prices fell. For full story, click here
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