Chinese vanadium nitride prices recover as costs firm

China’s national price for vanadium nitride (VN) rose slightly to Yuan 165,000/tonne ($23,529/t) including 13% VAT as of July 7, up by Yuan 6,000/t or 3.8% on week and on par with the level on June 19, according to Mysteel’s assessment. Most domestic VN smelters raised their offer prices this week given the extra money they were paying for raw materials, market sources said on Wednesday.

“The previous low price for VN of Yuan 159,000/t had forced many smelters into losses because prices of their key raw material, vanadium pentoxide, remained at a relatively high level,” a Shanghai-based market insider said. “So the smelters lifted their prices when they saw that stocks of the low-priced