Japan's antimony ingot imports from Myanmar surged in December, with no purchases from major supplier China for a second straight month.
Japan imported around 293t of antimony ingot, down by 15pc from a year earlier, according to the country's finance ministry. But imports rose by around 47pc from the previous month.
Myanmar was China's top supplier in December at 167t, up from none a year earlier. Japan's purchase from Myanmar in December marked the fifth consecutive month of Burmese imports, with the December shipment being the largest from Myanmar in 2024.
This may indicate a shift away from Chinese supply, but it remains unclear if Myanmar would replace China as Japan's top supplier in the long term. This is partly because of limited production capacity in the southeast Asia region, according to a market participant.
Japan's overall imports fell on the year in December, mostly because there were no Chinese deliveries in December, down from 174t a year earlier. This was despite China reopening its antimony export channel on 30 October 2024, after suspending export licence applications for most of October.
Japan will likely continue to be subjected to China's export regulations on antimony, as market participants see the measure as an attempt to restrict deliveries to countries which China has a strained relationship with, including Japan.
But China approved the export of 20t of antimony metal to a Japanese company in January, the first export licence granted since Beijing imposed the restrictions in September 2024.
Japan's imports from Vietnam and South Korea increased to 62t and 61t, respectively, in December, up by 22pc and 5.2pc on the year. Imports from Thailand fell to none, down from 60t from a year earlier.
