Traders downplay benefits of minor metals stockpiling incentives in Yunnan province

Minor metal market participants do not expect the Yunnan provincial government incentives for commercial stockpiling of non-ferrous metals to immediately boost indium or germanium prices due to the potentially limited share allocated to minor metals and the weak demand outlook.

The Yunnan provincial government called for leading enterprises to stockpile non-ferrous metals including copper, aluminium, lead, zinc, tin, germanium and indium to support the economy in an announcement on April 26. Companies can pledge their products to secure bank loans to reserve the metals from market.
As part of the incentive scheme, the Yunnan provincial government will invest 1 billion yuan ($141.2 million) to provide interest subsidies for these loans. Companies that stockpile tin, germanium and indium will get a subsidy of 80% on the total loan interest.
But for the moment, spot prices in China have not reacted to the news.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for germanium 99.999% Ge min, in-whs China was 7,000-7,600 yuan ($990-1,074) per kg on Wednesday April 29, unchanged from the previous week. 

Fastmarkets assessed the price of indium 99.99%, exw China at 890-920 yuan per kg on...

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