Selenium prices pushed to 13-year highs in July because of reduced summertime supply and stronger-than-expected purchasing by China. "The Chinese have been taking away supply that had been set aside for European consumers who decided not to make purchases," says a merchant in London. Traders there and in New York expect further price increases through the summer because of what they see as "rampant demand" from China.

Selenium is used in production of electronic components, glass, manganese and steel; as a photoconductor in plain paper copiers, and in biological applications by the agricultural and pharmaceutical industries. Commercial quantities of selenium are recovered as byproducts of the electrolytic refining of copper where it accumulates in anode residues. Japan, the U. S. and Canada represent over 70% of the total world mine production of selenium. Merchant prices have risen 40% this summer off a long-time average of about $4/lb to around $5.50, because the 2003 market has been caught short of the minor metal after recent cutbacks in copper output.

Meanwhile, the indium metal used in high technology computer applications, appears to have peaked around $1.90/kilogram after a steady rise from the 74¢/kg average of 2002. The shutdown of France's Metaleurop refinery in June served to boost indium prices in July to near four-year highs. Merchants, however, project a slippage in salestags starting in August because of reduced inquiries from consumers about availability for future deliveries. "The market is off the boil and actually has eased back," a trader says.

Antimony demand has been mired in the doldrums in recent weeks with New York merchant prices stuck at $1.09/lb for the past two months and no signs are emerging yet of improved demand. Traders say seasonal summer slowdown in European manufacturing has weakened antimony demand. Some New York and London business for August deliveries was completed around $1.06/lb. So, unless there is a sudden North American or Asian rise in purchasing for fire-retardants that are antimony-based, traders say August spot prices for the metal are unlikely to bounce.

Spot sales of cobalt, cadmium and bismuth started to cool in late July, traders report, so prices—which had risen in June and early July—were starting to slip for deliveries in August and September. Interestingly, the government's Defense National Stockpile Center has received no Internet-based purchase offers for the surplus cobalt it auctions.