Tantalum demand should stabilize

Demand for tantalum in 1987 should be more stable than in recent years, but supply is less certain, says Roskill Information Services of London.

Prices, which rose fourfold in two years to a peak of $120(US) per pound in 1980 then fell to $18-25 in April, 1986, should thus show some recovery in the medium term, the minerals marketing concern says.

Roskill’s study points to a number of areas of substitution and technological refinement for the decline in tantalum demand in the early 1980s and therefore the price decline.