Industrial Minerals


Global fluorspar prices rise in line with growing Chinese market

08 March 2011

by IM prices reporter

Increasing Chinese prices no longer fuelled by speculation but reflect rising costs

Keywords: fluorspar, acidspar, fluorochemicals, hydrofluoric acid

Export prices for Chinese acid grade fluorspar, an essential component of a wide range of fluorochemicals, are steadily rising in line with Chinese domestic prices, industry participants told IM.

Latest published prices for Chinese acidspar stand at $400-420/tonne (wet filtercake, FOB China) and $450-470/tonne (dry basis, CIF US Gulf port), while some traders have quoted levels as high as $425/tonne (FOB China) and $475/tonne (CIF) for new business. 

This compares to a published price of $280-300/tonne (FOB China) at the end of December.

Higher export prices follow a steep rise in domestic Chinese prices seen since the start of the year.

It is still unclear if the latest sharp increases have been...