Iridium prices moved slightly lower this week as sellers continued to lower their offers to attract buyers.
The Platts New York Dealer iridium price slipped this week to $400-450/oz from $400-475/oz the previous week.
"There's just nothing; there's no buying whatsoever," one platinum group metals refiner said, adding that sellers were having to lower their offers.
Moreover, some industrial consumers and producers were trying to reduce their inventories for year-end accounting purposes, a second PGM refiner said.
Earlier this week, UK refining giant Johnson Matthey noted in its interim 2013 report that electronics companies had already purchased substantial amounts of iridium in the form of high-temperature crucibles, which are used to grow sapphire crystals for light-emitting diodes in backlit LED televisions.
"Sufficient capacity is in place for the time being, and iridium demand has stabilized at the level required to replace process losses from existing installations," Johnson Matthey said in the report.
One PGM trader in New York interpreted that to mean "there was plenty of iridium around and that demand was not going to be that great next year either."
"I think it's closer to the BASF base price [of $425] than the Johnson Matthey base price [of $450]," he said.
Johnson Matthey did say the use of iridium salts to make blue phosphors for organic light-emitting diodes for digital displays was growing, albeit from a low base.
Meanwhile, the trading of ruthenium was characterized as brisk by some sources, though not enough to move it from its current range of $50-57/oz. Ruthenium is used to make electric contacts and computer hard-disk drives.
The second PGM refiner put ruthenium at $47-57/oz and said he saw some demand from North America as well as inquiries from Asia, while the PGM trader in the Northeast, who put the range at $50-57/oz, said there was "decent demand, and producers were selling. There was definitely some material trading."
The trading was such that few deals below $55/oz could be found this week, a European PGM trader said.
"I think the cheaper offers have gone," the trader said. "There were some last week, but I think the cheaper sellers got rid of what they had to sell."
Several market players last week cited multiple deals in the low $50s, still well within the current range. Ruthenium has held between $45/oz and $60/oz since mid-September.
