Court to hold second auction of Fanya indium stocks

Indium metal prices are likely to come under further pressure after a Kunming intermediate court today announced a second auction of indium metal from the stocks of China's bankrupt Fanya metal exchange.

The second auction for 34.64t of indium, which is claimed to be 99.995pc grade, will be held on the Alibaba exchange at 10am local time on 24 April and end the next day. The starting price for the total amount will be 37.411mn yuan ($5.57mn), which is 10pc lower than in the previous auction.

The first auction of metal from the stocks of the Fanya metal exchange, which collapsed in 2015, was held on 28 January but ended in failure after attracting no bids. The auction comprised a parcel of 7.60t of indium metal with a starting price of Yn9.12mn, which is equivalent to Yn1,200/kg, and a parcel of 27.04t with a starting price of Yn32.44mn, or Yn1,200/kg.

Concerns about the large amount of indium stocks held in Fanya warehouses have weighed on prices over the past two months.

The Fanya metal exchange held around 3,609t of indium before it collapsed in 2015. China's indium production capacity is around 700-1,000 t/yr, which is less than 30pc of Fanya's inventory. Fanya's reported stocks of its main listed products included 19,228t of bismuth, 26,951t of tungsten ammonium paratungstate (APT), 18,661t of antimony and 191t of gallium.