V2O5 prices below $8 per lb; expansions less promising
On May 21, 2019 By Alice AgoosIn Uncategorized
V2O5 can be purchased for $7-7.50 per lb, according to market sources in Europe. This price translates to a FeV price of roughly $31-33 per kg. European FeV prices were $35-36 per kg last week.
Over the past 15 years, the support price for V2O5 has been $7 per lb when the market is in a surplus, according to Terry Perles of TTP Squared. Perles, however, has said that the current market is in a deficit, and the support price when consumption exceeds production is $15 per lb.
When V2O5 prices climb above $15 per lb, Perles noted, new production is sparked from a variety of sources.
In fact, when V2O5 prices rose from $9.75 per lb at the start of 2018 to just over $29 in mid-November 2018, uranium producers in the US looked at restarting byproduct vanadium production, Chinese stone coal operations were more viable, spent catalyst recovery operations including Gulf Chemical’s plant in Texas, became a potential restart candidate, and several established producers, including Largo Resources, Bushveld Minerals and AMG Vanadium announced expansion plans.
So far, Largo and Bushveld are proceeding with plans to boost production. AMG has not received Board approval to proceed with a project announced last October to more than double its capacity to produce vanadium from spent catalysts by replicating its existing Cambridge, OH, plant.
Following the completion of a feasibility study, AMG’s October announcement stated, its Board had given the go-ahead for engineering work for the twin facility, and “several potential locations within the operational vicinity of AMG Vanadium’s existing plant” were under final consideration.
“Subject to permitting, construction is expected to commence mid-2019 with a completion date in early 2021, resulting in over 35,000 tons of incremental spent catalyst processing capacity and over 6 million pounds of incremental vanadium production capacity,” AMG said.
Construction starting mid-year seems unlikely, said a market source. At the request of intherightvein.com, AMG is working on an update regarding construction of the new plant.
The proposed plan to construct of a second recycling facility replaced AMG’s previously announced $35-million, 30% expansion of the existing catalyst recovery plant by yearend 2019.