RE: Vanchem24 May 2019 20:23
James Young
Okay. So, say for the $1 to $1.20 realized total premium in the market, what do you think the current market is for the high-purity V2O5 in today's environment?
Mark Smith
Terry, do you want to answer that one?
Terry Perles
Yes. So, when you talk about high-purity V2O5, you've got a continuum of applications and specifications. And those, as you get to the more rigid specifications, there's fewer potential suppliers and typically higher premiums.
So, I think that what we have in the market today, we have two basic market groups where high-purity vanadium is used. One is titanium alloy production, and the second is just the general chemical catalyst deals.
In the titanium alloy market today, the premiums that the producers of the vanadium master alloys of this industry are paying are a scaled premium that depends on where the market's at. When prices are very high, those premiums pop out at about $1.25 today, and when we're in price regimes like we're at today, the premiums are as high as $2.
When we go into the chemical industry, we've got another kind of set of situations. Again, you've got specifications that vary. On the easy end of the spectrum, it's something like sulfuric acid catalysts where premiums are typically $1 to $1.25. And on the other end of the spectrum, you've got things like [Indiscernible] and hydra catalysts where, even today, materials are being sold at $17 or $18 into those markets.