China to auction Fanya Ga, Ge, Se, Te stocks

The Yunnan government in China will auction stocks of gallium, germanium, selenium and tellurium held by the bankrupt Fanya metal exchange (FME) on 27 October.

This follows a string of auctions of antimony, cobalt, tungsten and rare earths from the exchange in the past few months.

The auctions will start at 10:00 Beijing time (02:00 GMT) on 27 October and end at 10:00 Beijing time on 28 October.

The intermediate court of Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, has posted the auctions on China's largest e-commerce platform, Alibaba. The stocks are stored in Shanghai Feiping Logistics' warehouses in Shanghai, Guixi and Kunming; China Logistics' warehouses in Zhuhai, Changde and Qingyuan, and Yunnan Xinchu Logistics' Kunming warehouse.

The starting price for the auction of 191,246kg of gallium is 149mn yuan ($21mn), equivalent to Yn784/kg with 13pc value-added tax (VAT) unpaid.

The Kunming court has put 92,310kg of Fanya germanium stocks up for auction with a starting price of Yn525mn, equivalent to Yn5,696/kg with 13pc VAT unpaid.

The starting price for 170t of tellurium is Yn51.95mn, equivalent to Yn306/kg with 13pc VAT unpaid.

The court has put 337.8t of Fanya's selenium stocks up for auction, with a starting price of Yn30.94mn, equivalent to Yn91.60/kg with 13pc VAT unpaid.

Chalco could buy gallium and germanium stocks from the exchange, which would relieve concerns that a sudden release of stocks could cause prices to collapse.

The Yunnan superior court on 26 July upheld an earlier verdict by the subordinate Kunming court, which in March imposed fines of Yn1bn to FME and Yn500mn, Yn50mn and Yn5mn to four related companies for illegal fundraising and embezzlement. The final court decision signalled that all stocks held in FME will be auctioned.

The Kunming court auctioned FME's tungsten APT stocks on 17 September, with domestic producer China Molybdenum securing the material by paying a higher settlement price. This has since shored up confidence in the spot market and pushed prices up sharply.

China Minmetals in August bought 18,611t of antimony, 148,750kg of dysprosium oxide and 4,050kg of terbium oxide stocks from the FME in two auctions held by the Kunming court.

The FME held 197t of gallium and 92t of germanium stocks before it collapsed in 2015. The exchange's stocks also include 19,228t of bismuth, 338t of selenium, 170t of tellurium, 35t of vanadium pentoxide and 3,629t of indium.