China's Bohai Commodity Exchange, or BOCE, a government-backed online trading platform, has added molybdenum to its list of spot commodities, and this is expected to boost moly trade in the mainland and increase price transparency, industry sources said Thursday.
On May 27, BOCE -- which is headquartered at Tianjin city in Hebei province, north China -- officially launched moly concentrate and ferromoly spot trade on its trading platform at its new moly trade center at Luanchan city in Henan Province, central China.
BOCE's moly concentrate and ferromoly are traded in one metric ton lots, requiring delivery of 400 metric ton units, and 600 mtu, respectively.
The launch of the new moly trading platform in China "could help increase price transparency and stimulate trade in China due to savings in trade costs," said a Southeast Asia-based moly trader who buys from China.
The trader, however, expects the new moly trading platform to have minimal impact on international moly prices. "LME prices, they're unaffected by Chinese prices," he said.
Chinese industry sources echoed similar views. In north China, a source close to both moly producers and traders said the BOCE platform should have some positive impact in bolstering domestic moly trade.
"But currently, most participants on the platform are traders, while the key Chinese producers haven't joined yet, limiting participation scope," she said.
"Also, so far as we know, actual local moly transaction prices have been below those quoted by the new exchange," she added.
A China Molybdenum source based in Henan said the company has yet to be a participant on the new trading platform, but did not provide reasons.
In April, Chinese metals consultancy Beijing Antaike said in an industry seminar that domestic moly prices in 2014 could be pressured lower by a rise in imported moly material, as well as new projects coming on stream this year.
China imported 6,818 mt of moly concentrate and ferromoly over January-April, up 86% year on year, figures from the General Administration of Customs showed. Moly concentrate accounted for 99.8% of the import volume in the period, and ferromoly, 0.2%.
Chinese domestic moly concentrate and ferromoly prices were at Yuan 1,430-1,460/mtu ($229-234/mtu) and 98,000-102,000/mt ($15,680-16,320/mt), respectively, on Wednesday, unchanged from Tuesday.
